Idiots Refuse to Evacuate!
 

I think they should have to reimburse the govt. for the cost of their rescue. I am sorry they may have lost everything, but they clearly could have left, but chose not to and now we had to pay to get their stubborn a$$es to safety. These are two different issues.

September 16, 2008

On Peninsula in the Storm: No Way Out

By SHAILA DEWAN

HIGH ISLAND, Tex. — First three cages containing seven birds were unloaded from the rescue boat. Then two dogs. Then the figures of a man and a woman uncurled from their huddle at the bottom of the boat and stepped onto dry land.

“I’m a miracle standing here talking to you,” said the woman, Deeann Sherman, hovering over the bird cages.

Full of shaky relief and gratitude, the couple told of their four-day ordeal on the Bolivar Peninsula, the fragile barrier beach community that was virtually destroyed by the storm surge of Hurricane Ike beginning on Friday. Like several hundred other Bolivar residents, the Shermans were trapped by high water, praying that the boats of rescue crews would eventually find them.

Rescuers who finally made it on Monday to the peninsula, home to nearly 5,000 residents and a seasonal playground for thousands more college students and beach revelers, found row after row of concrete slabs where houses used to be. They said they made contact with at least 100 residents living there, but found no bodies. They expressed fears, though, that some of those who tried to ride out the storm may have been washed out to sea. The only way to account for them may be to determine every resident’s whereabouts.

The Shermans own a wrecker service on the peninsula, and so are usually among the last to leave before a storm, they said. As the surge that preceded the hurricane hit the peninsula Friday morning, they were busy rescuing stranded cars and trucks. By 9:30 a.m., well before the storm was supposed to make landfall, they were ready to leave. Then Ms. Sherman got a call. Rollover Pass, which separates much of the peninsula from the mainland, was already flooded. There was no way out.

The couple, hurricane-ready after more than 30 years in Crystal Beach, the commercial hub of Bolivar, hunkered down in their house, which is perched on 16-foot pilings on the bay side of the thin finger of land. Then the storm hit.

“This was the meanest — the meanest — ugliest, longest storm I’ve ever seen,” Ms. Sherman said. “I prayed and prayed for hours and hours and hours.”

The water soon covered the floor of the house, 16 feet off the ground, then rose even more. The house was buffeted up and down, lifting off its pilings then landing again, miraculously, upon them. Unknown objects knocked against its underside as 10-foot waves surged past. The porch and bathroom broke away, crumpling into the surf. And then, as the couple fled to the attic with as many pets as they could rescue, one mighty wave knocked out the walls.

“The ocean rose up like a big hand and just went right through our house,” Ms. Sherman said. “Right through our house.”

Outside, the peninsula was under siege. Flooding and winds moved beach houses onto the highway, tore off awnings and walls, and rushed straight through houses and businesses, leaving their roofs intact but their insides tossed into a salad of clothing, furniture and debris.

For the second day in a row, rescuers gathered at the point where the road from the mainland to the peninsula disappeared under floodwater, knowing that there were not only people stranded on the peninsula, but also people missing and unaccounted for as well. An elderly woman and her daughter were rescued by helicopter. A team of medics was sent to care for another group of victims.

As the boats came and went, armed with a supply of bottled water, ranchers on horseback rounded up cattle stranded in salty, flooded fields. A helicopter landed on the highway and flew out again.

Ms. Sherman, 59, and her husband, Frank, 61, said they had tried again and again to signal to the helicopters flying overhead. On Saturday night, as the waters receded, Mr. Sherman used a flashlight to try to attract their attention. “They came and shone a spotlight on the house and flew away,” he said.

Mr. Sherman said he also saw three looters, running one off by threatening him with a gun. On Monday, finally, a medical team in a helicopter landed nearby and told the Shermans that help was on the way.

Because of the storm surge, rescues on the peninsula, which residents had been told to evacuate, began well before the storm hit. In Austin, people waiting in a convention center recalled harrowing scenes from their escapes.

Robin Bailey, 52, said that on Friday morning, she could see waters of the gulf rising fast and called the police, only to be told no help was coming. So she tried the Coast Guard.

“The tidal surge was coming in so fast that we knew we had to get out,” said Ms. Bailey, a restaurant cook. “So I called 311 for the Coast Guard and got a white sheet and got out in the yard and started waving it so someone could see me.”

The helicopter that responded could not land near her home, so Ms. Bailey and several friends walked up the road and crossed the highway to meet the chopper. By then, she said, the road was knee-high in water.

Another member of the same group, Perry Baker, 44, a bartender and electrician, said he had been stunned when the helicopter lifted and banked and he saw how quickly the storm surge had flooded the town. “There was no grass, no roads, no nothing but rooftops,” Mr. Baker said. “And that was 14 hours before the storm was supposed to be here.”

Mr. Baker left friends behind and feared they were dead. “I don’t know where they’re at,” he said.

With the roads still impassable, a full assessment of damage to Bolivar has not yet been made. On Monday, bridge inspectors examined the overpass from the mainland to the peninsula’s first community, High Island, pronouncing it stable. But the bridge at Rollover Pass, the peninsula’s narrowest point, was dangerously torqued.

Many people on the peninsula, a blue-collar fishing paradise whose residents include retirees, pipeline technicians and medical workers who commute to Galveston by ferry, did not have home insurance.

“We take a chance living on the beach — everybody does,” said Robert Isaacks, the Emergency Medical Services coordinator for Crystal Beach.

Mr. Sherman said his car repair business could not be insured because it was not elevated above ground. He tried to insure his home this year, he said, but insurers rejected the home because of the aviary the couple built out of bullet-proof glass, to protect it from storms.

The Shermans said that their life on the coast had been rich, but that it was over. They will sell their land on Bolivar to someone “younger and braver,” Ms. Sherman said, and go elsewhere. “There is a passage in the Bible that says, woe be to those who live on the coast,” she said. “I’m taking that to heart now.”

www.nytimes.com

Staci Semrad contributed reporting from Austin.

i concur
 

hey strand i totally agree with u...those ppl are hindering the recovery of the ppl in houston who have been without power for 3 days now...instead of working on cleaning up houston fema is rescuing the ppl from galveston and galveston island who refused to go...when an order to evacuate is given it should be followed...if it isnt then the ones that remained behind for whatever reason (be it a cage full of birds or whatever) should have to make restitution...the govenor did not say if u have animals or whatever and u want to stay behind do so by all means...she ordered an evacuation period...that means everyone...i fell bad that a lot of these ppl are now homeless and will have to rebuild their lives but they should have listened to the govenor...hugs pat

I know.

Unless there was a situation where it was some homeless person or some other exigent reason, they could have gotten out, but chose not to. I say pay up, esp. when the other areas of Texas are in need.

Good in theory perhaps but most don't have anything left. Those who are dumb enough not to leave probably don't have a lot of $$$$. That said, they definitely should be fined anyway and have to pay when the do begin having income. It should be illegal to stay behind when ordered to evacuate and a fine should be the punishment.

In Arizona when it rains those desert washes fill up fast. Many of them go right over main roadways. The law there says to avoid them and take an alternate route. Almost every driver assumes their vehicle will make it across with no danger involved. Even I drove thru one once and realized how stupid I was and decided I'd never do that again. After many years of drivers risking their lives to get out while their vehicle washed down the stream, the state made a law that if you drive thru one of these and you need to be rescued, they will rescue you. But when it's all done and over with you will receive a bill and you must pay it.
It might be the same if a helicopter has to land on a mountain to rescue someone who is hiking after dark. The rules say hiking is ok from sunup to sundown only. You don't know how many times a helicopter has to hover over Camelback Mountain to rescue some idiot who hurt him/herself while hiking after dark.

Actually, Galveston Island is a rather pricey resort area http://www.galvestonislandrealestate.net/propview.php

So, I do not think money was the problem. I think people were just stubborn or making money a la the people that owned the wrecker service.

You all are so right on this one. You would think that people would learn to LEAVE!!! These storms are serious business and are not to be taken lightly.

I did read though that the storm was pretty fierce 14 hrs before forecast. That is what the wrecker service owners said, I believe. So in that case it makes sense some wouldn't have gotten out though they intended to.

I get that. But, why didn't they leave when they were told to leave. The mandatory evacuation order was issued on Thursday. Clearly people knew the storn was headed directly for them prior to that :shrug:

See thread title (Idiots part). :lol:

I cannot stand these incredibly stupid stubbon people. These people were told to leave or they could be facing "certain death", if I recall correctly. How that doesn't scare someone is beyond me.

I have to laugh at the fact that when people who refused to leave called 911 during the storm and asked for help, they were told to tie their license to their ankle so they could be identified after the storm. :laugh: :laugh:

These people should pay something for wasting all that money unnecessarily. There needs to be some other way of holding people accountable for this kind of crap.

I've heard that there's a possibility that those rescued will have to serve an undetermined amount of community service- seems like a good idea that few can legitimately argue with.

Hey Sweetie..

Actually, that is only in one small area of Galveston... Unfortunately, the older parts of Galveston, the homes are like shacks, and are a LOT of very poor people! As you said, and I STILL don't understand this, they definitely should have evacuated- no questions asked! They could have somehow, put their belongings in a car/truck/ whatever.. and driven to higher grounds.. Here, in Houston, where we are, it's more "inland" and higher up for sure! Thank GOD we didn't get any damage, but we were without power for a week now.. and it's been SOO hard.

Hugs,

Arlene

^^^^

I feel for ya - hang in there and it's good to know you all are relatively unscathed!

Hey Strandie!

Awww.. thanks SOOO much! Unscathed.. and alive! LOLOL..:angel:

Hugs and love to you,

Arlene