TRIGGER WARNING I can’t believe some people aren’t evacuating in Florida

[Newsenmum]

I really don’t mean to be insensitive. This hurricane Milton is terrifying but I’m really struggling to understand this. I know there are some awful situations where people can’t drive/are disabled or elderly and feel helpless but what I CAN’T understand is people not trying. Like they’re completely putting their head in the sand.

I’m part of a few mum Facebook groups that are mostly American. I kid you not, people are staying in zones with their little babies where there is mandatory evacuation. Some reasons why they aren’t leaving:

• my dog is aggressive and won’t be allowed in the shelter, so I’m staying put with him and going to hope and pray. Why is the dog worth more than a kid?
• i have too many animals which don’t fit in the car, I’m worried about the chickens (!!) again.. wtf? Basically suicide for their kids because they don’t want to leave chickens!
• im from flORIda so I’ll be fine! Hopefully it’s not as bad as they think. I don’t want to disrupt us. wtf??
• my babies have a block safe room and that’s ‘normally fine’

There are other Americans trying to send them money, urging them to go storm shelters or at least a bit more inland!

These are people in areas that have 15ft storm surge, there is so much debris already around that is going to be trashing their houses. If they want a certain death for themselves then fine but can’t get over them not saving their babies 😭😭😭 all because they won’t leave the bloody chickens that are going to drown either way!!

Perhaps this is another consequence of Trump ramping up questioning of experts - people don’t necessarily believe that this storm will be any worse than others. They don’t have the education to understand how meteorologist work so just presume people are guessing and thus feel they are equally qualified to predict and better placed to know what is right for them individually. I doubt they are choosing in knowledge of the real risk they are running.

Totally agree! Leave the bloody dog to die and go 😩

I hate to be that person but there was a category 5 super typhoon in south east Asia last month. 830 people died and thousands and thousands lost their homes and livelihoods. I got stuck in the very tail end of it and it was horrific.

Don't remember seeing this much hand wringing over that.

It might be better to pray that all those people who have decided to stay put (especially those who may have no choice in the matter, for any one of a number of reasons) will stay safe through the storm? Just a thought.......

That’s so depressing.

I do dislike this 'innocent babies' thing.

Met many guilty ones?

Apart from those who shriek then puke and pee and shit everywhere ( trigger warning, light hearted.)

These people are beyond stupid for not moving if they can. I do hope mar à lardo is razed to the ground, along with that ghastly theme park.

Given no one in the U.K. experiences these things and is just regurgitating what they’ve been told by the BBC and heard on TikTok, this all seems a bit tasteless. I don’t think many people here can understand the reality of life for a lot of British people, much less Floridians. What good does it do handwringing and pontificating and blame passing about responses to a disaster the other side of the world, that hasn’t even happened yet.

If there was half as much concern for people in natural disasters that didn’t speak English and post emotive videos on social media the world would probably be a better place.

I am mildly horrified by the number of people apparently willing to put the lives of an animal (even a loved pet) equal with the lives of their actual human family though.

Or even just take the dog with you and if you have to leave it outside the shelter at least it’s more inland away from storm surge!

Human nature is a funny thing and in survival/disaster mode you sometimes don't do the obvious thing. A friend of mine is Ukrainian, left after the invasion, and went to visit recently. She said the first few nights she went to the shelter in the hotel when the air raid siren went but after a few nights, she was tempted to stay in bed thinking 'it will probably be fine', even though the shelter was in the building. She'd heard similar from friends before and was urging them to always go to the shelter but when she was there, she didn't act rationally. I imagine it's the same for people in areas affected by natural catastrophes, hard to understand from afar. Obviously the right thing for people to do is take precautions!

I think in times like this you have to make a decision about what you think will put you at less risk.

They can't just leave necessarily. There's no gas left, and the traffic queues are hours long. And if they've weathers storms in Florida beofre, it probably doesn't seem as scary to them as it does to us.

Also, perhaps they've left it too late to leave now (for the above reasons) and are embarked to say that. So they're making excuses.

I really don't think you need to be so aghast at decision they're making, which don't affect you.

But how are you going to protect your animals from a category 5 hurricane?

I love my cat but if it’s both of us die or just she dies then it makes no sense for me to die as well.

Having pets doesn’t make you invincible, but staying you are just maximising the amount of suffering.

Op what do you expect people to do if they have no money to go anywhere else, no other family, nowhere to go?
Not everyone will have the means to go anywhere else, and it’s easy to everyone else to say they would leave

You make an excellent point. I guess there are many reasons- rolling news coverage of it, live camera feeds, people relating to it being near Disney and they have been there, they know people, this is “people like us” (not saying any of these are acceptable but the reality)

Just like the war in Ukraine received so much more attention than in Yemen and people welcomed the European refugees but not the “other” ones.

This happened in WW2 as well—mums getting tired of dragging all of the children into the cold, damp bomb shelter in the middle of the night every night. There were some unfortunate outcomes.

To my understanding, many people are genuinely stuck and have been for some time, as it's absolutely gridlocked. They have no fuel or means to get out, and it's actually the safest shelter for them compared to the alternatives of being stuck out in the elements.

There are shelters. Everyone has somewhere they can go. It may mean some really difficult decisions but people are not being abandoned here

My dog is a family member and if we evacuated, she would always come too. I’d never leave her, I love her.

The roads are moving and fuel is available although with some wait

For fuck sake get a bloody grip

I'm an American and while I feel awful for those who didn't leave inland S. Carolina (it had never hit them there like that and the roads are near impossible to drive even on a good weather day), Floridians should know better. There's a lot of talk previously about not allowing new builds in very hurricane prone areas. I agree with that. Insurers are stopping coverage for areas that are risky to live in permanently. Not leaving because of chickens? That's a Darwin Award, surely?

My friends family tried to leave 2 days ago and got 3 miles in ten hours and got worried about running out of gas

My grandma said the same, the air raid siren would go off in the middle of a film at the cinema and people would stay to see the end!

She walked home during an air raid and narrowly avoided being decapitated by debris once!

There is no way I would stay if I were there, especially with a child.
But, what do you do if you have no transport and no money? I think despair is a good part of what keeps them behind.
Many have lost a lot in Helena. Now this one. No money, no means left to them...

But with children, staying intentionally, that I do not get, no.

There's another thread running about this hurricane and some Floridian MNers on there who have some great insights into what's going on. Don't know how to link a thread but just search for Milton and you'll see it

I can see this happening to them indeed.
Sometimes, it is just too much to process and we become irrational.