Posted on 09/28/2008 5:59:10 PM PDT by fightinJAG
Gail Ettenger made her last phone call at 10:10 p.m. She was trapped in her Bolivar Peninsula bungalow with her Great Dane, Reba. A drowning cat cried outside. Her Jeep bobbed in the seawater surging around her home.
Ettenger, 58, told her friend she was reading old love letters by flashlight. "I think I really screwed up this time," she said, according to Monroe Burks, Ettenger's neighbor who had evacuated to Houston.
That was Friday, Sept 12. On Wednesday — 12 days later — her nearly nude body was found face down by a huge debris pile in a remote mosquito-ridden marsh in Chambers County, about 10 miles inland from where her gray beach house once stood.
Two weeks after Hurricane Ike swept through the Texas coast, 400 people remain missing, mostly from Galveston County, according to an analysis of calls logged to a hot line set up by the nonprofit Laura Recovery Center to assist local authorities.
Until Wednesday, Ettenger was one of them.
About 60 of the missing lived on the Bolivar Peninsula, stripped bare by the storm surge that felled beach houses like a bomb. More than 200 were listed as missing on Galveston Island itself, according to a city-by-city analysis of the data conducted for the Houston Chronicle by Bob Walcutt, executive director of the recovery center in Friendswood.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
So we must pass a law giving the govt the power to force people to leave their property. Yep thats the answer.
PUKE
They made the decision to stay knowing they could die. Its sad but it was their decision.
lesson for all.....sometimes it pays to believe in danger.....
they must be slow learners.
they musta watched katrina.
and, the government, the “evil” /s bush adminstration,
even told them they’d die if they stayed.
“lesson for all.....sometimes it pays to believe in danger.....”
After Katrina the local and state govts are hyper about evacuations at the slightest hint of a storm. Its to the point of being silly here in Florida.
That said, if you live on a barrier island in an old run down house it is probably a good idea to drive 25-30 miles inland.
Actually much of the Houston metro area didn’t evacuate for Ike and this weekend there are reports in the news in the New Orleans metro area about finding ways to reduce evacuations. Times and minds are changing. You will find that evacuations will become a thing of the past if you are living at a high enough elevation.
Also sad is the fact the taxpayers will be footing the bill for all the search and rescue operations.
People who refuse to evacuate and then have to be rescued should have to pay the costs of their rescue.
They were told “MANDATORY Evacuation”
I am more & more convinced that we have bred 2 things out of the last few generations:
1.) Self-preservation
2.) Gratitude
Are you objecting that these people are voluntarily cleaning up the gene pool? Anyone who wishes to ride out a hurricane in an old shack should be encouraged to do so.
“People who refuse to evacuate and then have to be rescued should have to pay the costs of their rescue.”
yep, its worked that way with federal funding and its exactly how Obama will control the least of our actions.
Freedom is expensive in dollars. Loss of freedom is expensive in lives.
During Ike, we had a house full of family from the coast up here in central Texas. With my stepsister (not the sharpest knife in the drawer) it took me telling her to write her SSN on her arm and leg so we could identify the body to get her to evacuate.
Watching the storm coming in for land fall should have told these folks to get the heck out of Dodge but there are always those who think everyone should kowtow to their needs.
If there is a storm coming, get out of the way.... period
September 15, 2008 at 0000 UTC Location : TEXAS COASTLINE, United States Beginning Date and Time : Effective Immediately Ending Date and Time : Until further notice Reason for NOTAM : TO PROVIDE A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR DISASTER RESPONSE AND RELIEF OPERATIONS Type : Hazards
If I remember correctly they were warned well in advance told to get out ASAP and that to remain and not leave would result in “certain death”. What is it about “certain death” these people refused to believe or understand? Now, sadly they have no one to blame but themselves.
DARWINISM works...
I do think there needs to be some kind of financial liability for the people who choose to not evacuate when under a “mandatory” evacuation.
Insurers, for example, may limit coverage for vehicles damaged or destroyed because they were left in the mandatory evacuation zone *because* the owner chose to refuse mandatory evacution.
Government assistance could be provided free to those who did the mandatory evacuation. Those who did not should have to pay for services, such as helicopter pick-up, food and ice, etc. It is much more expensive and dangerous to try to provide such to people in the disaster zone.
I live in Chambers County about 1 1/2 miles from the Bay. We evacuated and came back Sunday morning. Luckily, we had minor damage, but my Son who lives less than a 1/4 mile down the Road has much more severe damage. The damage is terrible with thousands of trees down and plenty of “Blue Roofs”. It is especially bad in the Eastern end of the County (N. of the Bolivar Pen. which is in Galveston County.)
Prayers for you and your family during this time.
Smith Point ?
News has gone quiet...
As one who has evacuated many times, I can truly say that it is not fun to do. Finding a hotel room alone, somewhere within a 300 mile radius, can be a daunting and frustrating task. Making sure that your house is secure and that you have dotted all the "i"s and crossed all the "t"s before you pull away, can be nerve wracking and tense. I learned the hard way to always clean out your refrigerator before you leave. The drive can be bumper to bumper slow and very exhausting, our evacuation for Gustav took 20 hours for us to reach Birmingham. Then of course there is the expense. If you have to do it more than once a season, the whole procedure can get old very fast.
All that being said, God bless and keep everyone of those who perished in this terrible storm, and may God help all of those struggling to rebuild their lives in its aftermath, achieve their goals quickly.
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