Quote :

"With police officers and federal law enforcement agents ratcheting up the pressure on residents to leave, the holdouts worry that it is just a matter of time before they are forced out. Ms. Harris said she did not want to leave. "I haven't even run out of weed yet," she said. But she knows that fighting with police officers is futile. "I'll probably bitch and moan, but I'm not going to hole up," she said."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/09/national/nationalspecial/09holdouts.html?hp&ex=1126324800&en=a32134100a277a2f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Well then, I see no reason why Ms. Harris shouldn't be allowed to stay.

On a serious note - if you read the whole article - it talks about thousands of people who have provisions stored, security, etc. who want to stay but are being threatened to be forced out by national and local troops.

I see both sides of the argument to making evacuation mandatory, but I seem to want to side with these 'holdouts' that are prepared. They have shown their non-dependency on the Federal Government. If more of the middle to upper class residents of NO had been as prepared as these people were, then many more lives could have been saved.

Quote :

"They cannot understand why. They live on high ground in the Bywater neighborhood, and their house escaped structural damage. They are healthy and have enough food and water to last almost a year. They have a dog to protect them, a car with a full tank of gasoline should they need to leave quickly and a canoe as a last resort. They said they used it last week to rescue 100 people. "We're not the people they need to be taking out," Mr. Kay said. "We're the people they need to be coordinating with." "

I have to applaud people (especially those that live in a situation such as what NOs was in, where everyone knew that a hurricane could cause catostropic damage) that are prepared for the situation personally and aren't relying on the Federal Government.

Flip-side, should these people still be evacuated to help the Local and Federal Government's complete the clean-up effort? I don't see why they would be getting in the way, but I'm not the leader of FEMA (ha) so I'm not sure I see the whole picture. Still, why would they need to bouldoze or do any work around these people's dry 3000 sq foot home?

Discuss.

[Edited on September 9, 2005 at 9:30 AM. Reason : .]

9/9/2005 9:16:20 AM

weed doesn't make people violent

that's the booze talkin

9/9/2005 9:22:54 AM

meh

9/9/2005 9:26:38 AM

something tells me they won't force people out who are in undamaged and well-stocked houses.

9/9/2005 9:31:17 AM

Because only crazy militia people keep a year's worth of food and water stored.

9/9/2005 9:34:01 AM

Quote :

"Mr. Nagin has said the city is not safe for civilians because of the risk of fire and water-borne diseases. There was no official word on Thursday about when the police would start to evict residents forcibly, but officers have been knocking on doors to plead with people to leave on their own."

^^ You're probably right, but the orders are coming from the same local/state/federal govt. that screwed this up from the beginning.

^ lol yeah I was thinking the same thing, but then I thought that if I was a middle class family in NO I probably would have done exactly what they did.

[Edited on September 9, 2005 at 9:38 AM. Reason : ^]

9/9/2005 9:37:53 AM

I think it is too late to mandatory evacuations, isn't it?
the water is going down, not up.

9/9/2005 9:38:40 AM

^ Eh, they claim they want to evacuate the remaining residents to make clean-up easier. Plus they claim the the remaining residents are all looters and need to be taken out.

9/9/2005 9:42:32 AM

Sgt. Cindy Lefore of the Oregon National Guard
tries to talk Grady from "Sanford and Son" into leaving.

9/9/2005 9:49:54 AM

rofl

9/9/2005 10:06:29 AM

hey guys, stop posting long links that stretch the page

it's annoying

9/9/2005 10:19:10 AM

get a browser that will wrap text/links?

9/9/2005 10:26:31 AM

Use TinyURL.com?

9/9/2005 10:50:12 AM

my safari on my mac is fixing it with no problem

9/9/2005 10:51:10 AM

Quote :

"If more of the middle to upper class residents of NO had been as prepared as these people were, then many more lives could have been saved."

ummm. I'm fairly certain that the middle and upper class residents of NO pretty much got the fuck out when they saw a big ass hurricane coming to their area which is 20 feet below sea level and with a big ass lake on the other side of them... Furthermore, the lives lost were not as a result of poor individual preparedment. They were lost on account of a botched evacuation effort and improper planning for rescue and "shelter" efforts (IE, actually having ample provisions stored at or near places set up as shelters).

9/9/2005 11:07:21 AM

^ Drew conclusions from what I was saying that weren't said.

9/9/2005 12:44:46 PM

I'm having visions of them trying to remove my grandpa from his house.

I guess he is kind of one a crazy, alcoholic, ration stocking, gun toting, militia guy. If they tried to pry him out without his four cats and Pierre the Poodle Pup, he'd go postal on them. Good thing he's decided to hole up in the ozarks instead of NOLA.

The characterization of these people as looters is just complete and total BS. Crazy? probably mostly. Stubborn? definitely.

9/9/2005 11:07:33 PM