1. Evacuate WHEN TOLD TO DO SO.
2. MOVE out of the area whenever the opportunity arises.
There was plenty of time to PREP or evacuate. No excuses, none,nada, zilch.
We are watching vast amounts of money being spent in the Rescue efforts, that could have been spent on other things. My sympathies to all the idiots who stayed, but there is no way to FIX STUPID. Must be a genetic thing.
I hate to burst your bubble, but most of the people affected, numberwise do NOT live in an area that was to be evaced. All my friends in central NJ were NOT anywhere NEAR an evac zone. One power company has started to hint that they’ll be without power for 6w. It will be really cold then. Fortunately they have a fireplace.
Only a very few people lived in Zone A in NJ or NYC area. The Zone B people were like the ones on the MS coast who were killed by Katrina surge.
The NHC predicted surge of X feet and they got surge of X+Y ft where Y was a significant number. Those who counted on some value near ‘X’, died. Even ‘disaster savvy’ MS coast residents died. Normalcy bias ain’t just for yankees...
Secondly, it’s pretty much impossible to find jobs for all the rest of them in non-urban areas. Where, exactly, would YOU put the 10M+ people who live in this particular megalopolis? And what sort of urban density problem in the midst of a future disaster would you be creating in the new ‘civilization’ site? My friends in central NJ work in big pharma. Other than Eli Lilly, pretty much all pharma R&D is in NJ. Then, if they DO all move, what happens to the homes they live in now? if someone buys those homes you have the same problem, only different people. If you ‘condemn’ the homes, do you reimburse them? They bought those houses fair and square. Do you confiscate them for their own good and dump them all out in nebraska somewhere? What jobs will they be able to get there, even IF you retrain them into another field?
Not everyone can live on or afford 20+ acres in the middle of nowhere.
They aren’t ‘STUPID’ because they live in NJ any more than any of the SE residents within 10m of the coast are ‘STUPID’ for living there. Bad things can happen anywhere. Are all SoCal residents stupid? What about all residents of Portland, Seattle or any other ‘volcano’ city? What about those who live in the New Madrid zone? Are they stupid if their entire home AND all their stash(es) get destroyed in the next ‘big one’? In the plains it could just as easily be an F5 slab scraper tornado. Are residents of tornado alley stupid?
I see ‘okie’ in your name? Are you in Oklahoma? If you have an F5 slab scraper next April, will you be living on the canned goods in your cellar? Because all your dry stuff in the top of your pantry will be spread over 3 counties. what if you’re 5m from home when the thing strikes? are you stupid for being away from your cellar? And if it takes your wellhead with it, what will you do for water? For fireplace. Or wood? Should the people of NJ resent our rescuing you from your basement should that happen? Can you fix that stupid for living in Oklahoma in the middle of tornado alley?
It’s easy to judge if you’ve never been there.
You’re very lucky if you’re self sufficient. You, of all people, should realize that your self sufficiency is only a slab scraper away from being naught as well. Instead of being judgemental, maybe try being thankful that it isn’t YOU. This time.