Sigh.
There was a MANDATORY evacuation order for mobile homes and RV's in Charlotte County(including Punta Gorda) for more than 24 hours before the storm struck. Hurricane WARNINGS were in place even before that. Every person living in a hurricane prone area has repeatedly heard and been warned about how dangerous and unpredictable hurricanes are. Everyone living in a mobile home has repeatedly heard that they are vulnerable to extremely high winds. The gov't can only do so much, at some point only the individual can be held responsible for his choices.(Shouldn't that go without saying on a conservative site?)
There will be a massive attempt by the media to shift all blame to the Bush's, the local gov'ts, and the weather agencies rather than those who chose to ignore the many warnings put out. Please don't give any kind of legitimacy to these politically-driven slander attempts.
I'm still amazed that Freepers would think the government is so stupid not to tell people to leave there is a storm on the way. Hurricanes are not like tornados of earthquakes where there is little notice. People are told days in advance to start packing up.
we had a long thread during the approach of the storm - its no one's "fault", but the nature of the way they do the evacuations for these. of course, they issue alot of evacuation requests in a blanket fashion, and that is surely the responsible thing to do when you have to move alot of people and you need alot of lead time to do it. As was done in the Tampa Bay region.
My only point is, they know these storms can turn at the last minute. and there has to be some part of the evacuation system that looks at that "last minute" move - and issues some decidely pointed alerts to the areas that are going to get blasted. There was about a 3-4 hour lead time for charlotte Harbor (I am talking about the direct hit part of it).