As Hurricane Milton approaches many cities were largely deserted but some people decided to shelter in place
Most left when they were told to. But some chose to stay, even though officials warned Hurricane Milton would turn their homes into coffins.
Along Florida’s Gulf coast, where millions of people were urged to get out of harm’s way, cities were largely deserted on Wednesday afternoon as time ran out to evacuate. Those who remained were advised to shelter in place as best they could. Others who fled spoke of their dread at what, if anything, they would return to once the storm had passed.
…
William Tokajer, police chief of Holmes Beach, told islanders who planned to stay to write their names, dates of birth and social security numbers on their limbs with Sharpies to help identify their bodies after the storm.
Reminds me of the Parable of the Drowning Man
A storm descends on a small town, and the downpour soon turns into a flood. As the waters rise, the local preacher kneels in prayer on the church porch, surrounded by water. By and by, one of the townsfolk comes up the street in a canoe.
“Better get in, Preacher. The waters are rising fast.”
“No,” says the preacher. “I have faith in the Lord. He will save me.”
Still the waters rise. Now the preacher is up on the balcony, wringing his hands in supplication, when another guy zips up in a motorboat.
“Come on, Preacher. We need to get you out of here. The levee’s gonna break any minute.”
Once again, the preacher is unmoved. “I shall remain. The Lord will see me through.”
After a while the levee breaks, and the flood rushes over the church until only the steeple remains above water. The preacher is up there, clinging to the cross, when a helicopter descends out of the clouds, and a state trooper calls down to him through a megaphone.
“Grab the ladder, Preacher. This is your last chance.”
Once again, the preacher insists the Lord will deliver him.
And, predictably, he drowns.
A pious man, the preacher goes to heaven. After a while he gets an interview with God, and he asks the Almighty, “Lord, I had unwavering faith in you. Why didn’t you deliver me from that flood?”
God shakes his head. “What did you want from me? I sent you two boats and a helicopter.”
In Venice, about 40 miles (64km) to the south, Sherry Hall and her family decided to stay in their house several blocks from the ocean, despite many of their neighbors leaving amid warnings of a storm surge up to 15ft. Her husband, Tommy, prepared the property with shutters and sandbags, and she said they had generators, portable air conditioning units, and plenty of water and food to be self-sufficient.
Let me know how well the portable AC & generators work in 15ft of water, Sherry.
“several blocks from the ocean”
I’m sure that’s enough, right?
survivor bias.
They’ve probably done this a dozen times and made it.
Well, time for them to make a saving throw.
William Tokajer, police chief of Holmes Beach, told islanders who planned to stay to write their names, dates of birth and social security numbers on their limbs with Sharpies to help identify their bodies after the storm.
This isn’t a new suggestion. I remember this being told to people staying in spite of evac orders for a previous nasty storm, iirc it was Key West hearing it that time. It scared the shit out of some people back then and convinced them to leave, sadly the more times you hear something like that the less impact it has. And your neighbor managed to ride it out last time they said that…
I don’t know if they ever said it beforehand, but it’s been a very prominent bit of information ever since Katrina for obvious reasons.
In 1984 Frankie Goes To Hollywood released their single Two Tribes. It’s about that perennial eighties trope of the imminent planet-ending nuclear apocalypse we were all hanging about for at the time. The track and remixes contain spoken samples from at least two UK government publications regarding what to do when the bombs came - it mentions id-ing corpses in a similar manner. There was a booklet sent out to every house, from the government, called “Protect and Survive” It’s hilariously optimistic about my chances of survival.
I know of that, but didn’t know about Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s song. Raymond Briggs’ book/animated film When the Wind Blows was also a response to Protect and Survive and there’s a Young Ones episode that mocks it as well.
When the Wind Blows is a perfect response to Protect and Survive… I simply never connected the dots as a kid. I don’t know about the Young Ones getting in on the act. Gonna have a look for that later. Every now and again I stop to think whether it might’ve been best if someone had pushed the button and called time on the eighties - and humanity as we know it. I can’t believe we dodged the nuclear apocalypse (so far) and still ended-up squabbling and artificially divided.
The Young Ones episode is called Bomb and the manual is directly referenced and I believe the text they read from it is real too.
And it’s on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKc_mrRhfII
Geo-blocked… but it’s on iplayer so will try and get that working instead. I’ve been told US / commercial-station versions sometimes miss out the band. Don’t know if is true - but looking forward to seeing Dexy’s on this episode. I have a copy of Protect and Survive. 50p cost and a foreword dated May, 1980. Page 24: “If a death occurs while you are confined to the fall-out room place the body in another room and cover it as securely as possible. Attach an identification.”
It used to be shown in the U.S. on MTV in the 80s. They kept the bands, but cut the episodes down for time so they could show commercials and occasionally cut out the jokes they thought Americans would get super offended by. There’s a bit in the episode Party where a cop tries to arrest someone and they turn around and the cop says, “oh sorry, I thought you were a N–.” I think that’s some pretty funny commentary about racist cops, but I’m guessing it wouldn’t have played well in 1980s America.
Also, I had them all taped from the MTV broadcasts except the episode Nasty, which I didn’t see until years later when I could buy commercial tapes. I’m guessing the fact that it was about video nasties made it too over-the-top at the time even though you never actually see footage from one.
Edit: They also used to show Monty Python’s Flying Circus but they put a content warning beforehand, done in the style of a Gilliam animation that told you to not watch if you’re offended. But come on, it’s Python we’re talking about here, not a Frankie Boyle comedy routine.
“The Lord” is telling you to fucking move. “The Lord” does not reach down from on high.
You’ve never seen an FE-5 twister
I suppose the message from the lord in that case is “diiieee!?!”
Sure seems that way. They’re known in tornado alley as “The Finger of Gawd”
It made me think of that too. I remember hearing it on the West Wing though.
Who sent the hurricane?
It was sent as a test, all that chose to stay failed
Do you want a correct answer, a wrong answer consistent with their ideology, or a completely wrong answer? The one they are believing is the completely wrong answer, of course.
Or the answer the insurance companies will give.
The Democrats /s
There are people that actually believe this 🤦🏽♂️
Jewish space lasers.
Others who fled spoke of their dread at what, if anything, they would return to once the storm had passed.
At least they won’t be part of the debris.
The same lord that skullfucks your life right now?
And apparently, no faith in Ron White.
And the Lord said, I sent ye a sign. A sign that said evacuate, and ye didn’t listen.
God is a pirate?
Would explain the collection basket
I adore you. Haven’t laughed this hard in a while.
🎶 Yar har fiddle dee dee, being ficticious is alright with me, do what you want 'cause a lie is me, you are a moron!
(you are a moron~)
Yaaaaay! 🎶
Fewer Republican voters in Florida, got it.
Just like Covid anti-vaxers. It’s a win for society.
As morbid as it is to think about, this was was the first thought I had.
Ok, but when they are standing on their own roofs waving at helicopters, I want rescuers to just wave back. Let their gods come down and risk life and limb to save their stubborn asses.
Maybe the Oklahoma Gov could send them some bibles to help them pray
send them some bibles
Ya mean those cheap gold colored Chyna bibles?
Chyna bibles
Hey man, Joan Laurer had nothing to do with this.
I volunteer to chuck bibles at dummies’ heads from a cool helicopter
I think the helicopter people shouldn’t only be waving.
An additional thumbs up could deliver so much inspiration and motivation!
They could drop down some fliers that said “thoughts and prayers”
Drop a Bible on their heads
…… you are heartless
Not heartless at all. If anything, they’re respecting the religious freedoms of these suicidal-death-cult members.
You cannot assume that all the people unable to evacuate were obstinate religiously minded conservatives. Very few people have the means to leave their residence when the time comes.
Not everyone owns a vehicle. Not everyone can walk their way out of the path of a storm. What about all the people left in nursing homes. Katrina saw a lot of people forced to stay. Unless there are no homeless people in that section of Florida, I’m ptlretty sure there a lot more forced to stay than those who choose to stay.
Letting everyone die isn’t a good way to get people to learn and change their minds.
It’s perfectly okay to have sympathy for those who have no means of escape.
That’s not who was expressing their desire to stay due to some belief that their deity has a duty to protect them.
Am I? I care about the lives of people who help people. The people who obstinately refuse to leave when given ample warning because they think they know better are not deserving of the sacrifices made by emergency personnel.
this is why I hate liberals. So high all the fucking time. People have circumstances, and maybe sometimes can’t afford a starbucks every day or to leave their houses. More than likely in america, they were failed by their education system. Yet you still revel in their suffering.
This is either a strawman argument or a complete misunderstanding on your part. Given that conservatives are biologically incapable of being honest, I’m going with the former.
No one is suggesting that people without the means to evacuate should suffer. No one. Not a single fucking person.
Every word uttered by a conservative is either deception or manipulation.
Just because someone is talking poorly about liberals doesn’t make them a conservative.
There is a whole other side of politics to the left of liberal. For example, socialists, communists anarchists etc.
Thinking liberal=“the left” is American propaganda. Liberals are basically centrists.
You were referring to another commenter as a “liberal” in the exact same way conservatives refer to everyone left of Trump as a liberal. You are transparently bad at this.
I wasn’t doing anything. You are confusing me with another person.
For the record I’m probably what most would consider “a leftist”. I’m absolutely not not a conservative, but also absolutely not a liberal.
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Im not a conservative at all actually. But suppose that the people not evacuating had the means to and were dumb as fuck. Eating popcorn while watching them suffer instead of praying or wishing them well is monstrous.
Im not a conservative…
This sounds like deception.
suppose that the people not evacuating had the means to…
You are moving the goalpost. What happened to all those evil “liberals” laughing at those who couldn’t afford to flee? Why does your story of these imaginary evil liberals change so easily? Could it be because you are just throwing things at the wall to see what will stick? That’s the most common conservative strategy for attacking non-conservatives this year, so that makes sense.
Eating popcorn while watching them suffer instead of praying…
More conservative strawman nonsense. Who is doing that? Is the scary godless non-conservative in the room with us right now?
Every word uttered by a conservative is deception or manipulation. Your comment thread here seems to be an illustration of that.
One of my good friends lives in Tampa and his mom took the car and bailed while he was taking out the dogs. He’s stuck at home this very moment and I only hope he’s safe
See, that’s why I never let my mom near the car keys.
This is why I have my own house and cars lol
See what Florida does to people?
What the fuck
Sounds like he needs to cut that monster out of his life.
I hope your friend is ok and able to let you know.
I wonder if they’ll ever consider that an almighty god could, you know, NOT send the hurricane instead.
It’s god way to test our faith
Religion is great like that.
The two choices of why are always:
[ ] Punishment [ ] Test faith
I thought it was enough to not be a murder, a thief or a cheater. Well, you also shouldn’t sell your soul to the devil.
Once you’ve sold it, no storm will save you. If you haven’t sold it, you don’t need a storm.
I think they’re so scared of god and think they have to be tested, because they already failed and have sinned by being envious, hateful or greedy.
The democrats control the weather and sent the hurricane.
And apparently the Democratic party is more powerful than their god.
But climate change is not real and man can’t affect the weather.
Odd then that they didn’t send rain when CA was burning or hail on J6 or some such.
So then their god can stop the hurricane and the democrats, right? 🤣
Then how would he punish the gay people?
By making the bottoms attracted to other bottoms and the tops attracted to other tops I think. He seems to get a chuckle out of that.
Maybe like this??
“Gods calling me!” Means the same thing as “I’m stupid and think I’m important.”
