Answer #2 to the Evac Question...Don't

[Radar]

You know a couple of points about sheltering large numbers of humans havent been touched on yet...

1. As humans, shelters seem to be like cages to us. Keeping a large number of people locked up in a building for very long is NOT a good idea... Just imagine the unrest, like we have seen at the Superdome.

2. Sheltering individuals in close proximity could cause some serious health problems, especially without clean running water, sewage systems and the inability to be able to health screen all the individuals coming into the shelter. As we have seen during Hurricane Katrina when a shelter had to be evacuated when they thought they had a dysentary outbreak but turned out to be the Norwalk virus...

Sheltering large groups of people during a storm should be a LAST resort measure. It is a necessary measure to insure immediate safety but it does have it's health risks over a long period of time. And what would you rather do evacuate? Or have a little cot with a person with head or body lice on one side of you and a person with TB on a cot on the other side of you? Sheltering large groups could cause serious epidemics. I would rather be on the road for 24 hrs then put my health or my childrens health at risk... I'm asking you to just think about this!!!

[gratefulnole]

Florida has been dealing with this problem more with our increasingly dense populations. It can be hard to actually evacuate out of the cone for alot of those that live on the peninsula. Last year people left Tampa and went to Orlando for Charlie and got it hit by it there.
I work with a gentleman who grew up in the US Virgin Islands and went through (Hugo?). There you assume that you will be hit by a major hurricane anyyear so you build and plan accordingly. The southeast needs to adopt that mentality.

[bevgo]

Shelter in place???? I think not. Not in NOLA anyway. They don't have shelters in NOLA for a reason and Katrina showed us that reason. That was my home for 18 years. Stay on the MS Gulf Coast?? Never again. That was really stupid and I am lucky I didn't pay for that decision with my life. Katrina taught me a big lesson. Leave and do it early. If the storm does not hit here I can always come home. I left 3 days after Katrina since we just could not take it. I now have anxiety attacks and start crying at the drop of a hat. I spent the day in Gulfport today looking for patients. Out of 7 attempted visits 4 homes were totally destroyed. This whole experience has been a nightmare and I cannot wake up.