These people had over a week to evacuate or to prepare for the storm. Three days after the storm hit they were standing in debris screaming bloody murder. I have lived on hurricane-prone coastal lands much of my life, and I’m having trouble understanding exactly what turned a storm into a human disaster of epic proportions. If you refuse to evacuate danger zones or make reasonable preparations, you have to endure the consequences. As the old sign said, “A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.”
“If you refuse to evacuate danger zones or make reasonable preparations, you have to endure the consequences.”
Most of these people are not in evacuation zones; the zones should have been expanded. This is not a “hurricane-prone” area; a hurricane has not hit NJ since 1903 (and Sandy wasn’t even a hurricane by the time it hit). This was just a horrible timing of events (as far as much of the NY damage is concerned); for NJ it was something at least seen before on a reduced scale.