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Forum: Too Many Katrina Refugees At My House

24 August 2006

ssol – at 09:51

I have mentioned this first-person testimonial in previous posts. This guy invited a few friends from New Orleans to stay at his house and ended up swamped. He has written a very thoughtful essay on what went wrong, what to do and especially what we ought to do if we have to bug out from our towns for any reason.

http://tinyurl.com/hx7cf

Dennis in Colorado – at 10:19

I thought the greatest “take-away” from Fr. Frog’s commentary was his epilogue:

You won’t have problems if you are prepared for them. (Unless a government employee shows up to “help.”)

FrenchieGirlat 10:22

That was an eye opener. I think it would go nicely somewhere on the main Wiki. If others find this a good idea, would you ask your friend if he would allow this?

ssol – at 10:30

Dennis in Colorado: I agree.

FrenchieGirl – at 10:22. Yes, if people want I will check. When I first read this it was a dry mouth, sobering experience. His experience dispells many ideas about what may happen on the fringe of a big city when TSHTF.

LEG – at 11:15

I have had several people tell me that we are a civilized country and when TSHIF people will help each other, and then it will eventually return to life as we knew it BEFORE. This article is a very important help in perspective - humankind is self oriented for survival. We must not underestimate the potential threats as we try to help others.

Green Mom – at 11:55

Ive printed this essay and put it in my BIG RED DISASTER notebook. I’m afraid what he says rings all too true with my experience with other types of disasters. Fortunantly, I havn’t experienced one as bad as Katrina, but I have been through several icestorm/tornados. Ive also had friends in personal disaster situations come stay with me- and stay and stay and eat and eat and then it was “SO long and thanks for all the fish!” no reimbursment no nothing and it leaves a really sour feeling. But then on the other hand, we’ve (Dh and I) have “rescued” people who months later came back and said “Hey man thanks so much you really helped me out of a tight jam, let me write you a check or buy you some groceries or something” You just never know.

However-now that I have children, I put them first and am not as apt to rescue wayward friends. If someone needs to crash on a couch for a few days, ok fine, but if its going to take food away from my kids, or put them in danger, or seriously disrupt their lives, no way.

Ive also seen healthy adult males walk away from children who needed help and frail old people standing in the rain trying to help total stangers. Its just crazy.

Bluebonnet – at 16:40

As I have written before, I had 17 Rita evacuees at my house for a month. I did not have the problems this person writes about and that could be because they were family and not just friends. They all pitched in to clean, prepare food, and buy groceries. No one brought any “extras” to the house - just family.

I would caution everyone here about being on the road and having folks try to take supplies by force. This happened to my relatives TWICE on the evacuation route. This was due to the fact that they all drive SUVs and their preps were visible through the windows. A couple of small handguns took care of this situation. Yes, Texans are armed!!!!

It took them 22 hours to go about 120 miles. No gas, no toilets, no water, no food. This is the reason others could see their preps - they were creeping along at about 5 mph. This was when they were moving - most of the time they were stopped dead in traffic.

Not to mention DPS officers who kindly diverted everyone into a field to ride out a hurricane! Fortunately, a kind woman arrived with 10 gallons of gas and they were able to move on.

I also agree that, should you choose to bug out, you need to really think about what you take with you and keep this to a minimum. Relatives said over and over “why did I bring THAT?” What seems to be essential in panic mode is not always what is really necessary for survival - i.e., jewelry, motorbikes, etc. - rather than food and water.

All in all, I think this is a good observation and folks need to really think about taking someone into their home during a disaster situation. Fortunately for all of us, it worked and it worked well. In fact, our family is closer now than we have been for the last 30 years.

Texas Rose – at 18:49

“I would caution everyone here about being on the road and having folks try to take supplies by force. This happened to my relatives TWICE on the evacuation route. This was due to the fact that they all drive SUVs and their preps were visible through the windows. A couple of small handguns took care of this situation. Yes, Texans are armed!!!!”

The husband and I have observed that in that sort of situation, whoever is riding shotgun really needs to be riding shotgun.

Thanks for posting that account. Very sobering.

What bothered me the most was the attitudes of the governmental types, that anyone who was prepared must have been looting. I would have thought the government types would be thrilled that someone was prepared and didn’t need assistance.

ssol – at 19:07

Texas Rose; Yes, I agree that the government employee response is the most disturbing. I do not think you can chalk it up to ‘the stress, being away from their families, the long hours’, and it wasn’t just one or two. It seemed to be all over. That is an indication of very poor training and supervision.

Why the attitude that everyone is a dirt bag except them?

Any LEOs out there?

A former Lurker – at 21:00

Thank you ssol, it was moving to say the very least. A real eye opener for those of us that just watched on the news. So much goes on behind the scenes that we never hear about. This needs a place on the main Wiki, it’s one of those things that Will make a difference, could save a few lives too, Mods????

Jefiner – at 21:57

I have emailed this to all my skeptical friends so they know why I prep. I have been getting a lot of heat about it lately. Good insights!

25 August 2006

mamypoko – at 00:09

Thanks ssol at 09:51 for posting it. Loved the read. It’s certainly good learning/awareness for a “possible” future application which i hope i’ll never have to deal with.

Petticoat Junction – at 02:35

Sobering is right. Downright scary. Makes some of the preps I consider my ‘paranoid preps’ (lol) seem rational, even perhaps a bit tame.

And yet it fits perfectly with what I saw here the day before Rita hit (and we are quite a few hours inland). I would especially agree with his point #4 (“In a real emergency, forget about last-minute purchases”).

I found out that friends were heading up with approx 25–30 parishoners in tow (he’s a pastor and they were evacuating the elderly w/no relatives, etc) so I thought I’d make one quick run to the store for a few things. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen experienced…or want to again. Pkgs of unneeded things strewn on the floor, people fighting over the last bottle of Gatorade and store-brand Spam, furtively darting through the parking lot and not even taking their carts to the corral lest someone steal their hard-won grocery stash. And that was before it got really bad.

Thanks to Rita, I went from semi-serious prepper to very, very serious prepper.

Though I think this article may have bumped me up another half notch. ;o)

Bluebonnet – at 09:55

PJ - Me, too! It was INSANE here in Houston prior to Rita. I actually witnessed two women get into a physical altercation over bottled water at Sam’s.

Never, never, ever again will I go to any big box, grocery store, etc. prior to a disaster - natural or not.

I can just imagine what it would be like with a pandemic flu. Fear is an incredible emotion we humans express rather well, in my opinion.

Almost a year later, most of the folks (including family) I know that evacuated for Rita have sworn “never again.” There was complete, utter, lawlesness on the roads. Most of the small towns in East Texas blocked access to their towns so folks were unable to get precious gasoline and food and water. Other towns had folks lining the roads with water, snacks and limited gasoline. It was utter, complete chaos. Families with children who ran out of gas simply sat on the side of the road thinking they would have to ride out a Cat 3 storm in their CARS! I cannot even imagine the horror of that.

After Rita, the grocery stores here were able to open on Saturday afternoon. Some limited the amount of folks in the stores - others allowed everyone in. We were lucky that the lights went off in our small town for only 4 hours. However, the stocks were very low for about a week after the storm. So don’t plan on restocking then either.

Make sure you have enough preps to ride out a disaster AND the aftermath.

Keep prepping!

Petticoat Junction – at 11:05

Bluebonnet,

Exactly! Just stepping inside the store made me soooo glad that I had food and supplies at home so that I didn’t have to get sucked into the panic mode (at that point I had several weeks’ worth, now 3+ months’ and trying to get to 6 mo asap!). It was very freeing and yet made me very, very sad watching others scrambling for a few small cans of some leftover something. (And it was about a month before all of our stores were fully back up to capacity, too. Once the first few shipments did start coming in, people were hoarding just as much as they could; kind of a post-traumatic reaction. So it took even longer to restock.)

I saw price-gouging at one small grocery store, too…a line of people were dashing in and out of a normally sleepy little business so out of curiosity I stopped. They had gotten a shipment of bottled water (12pk indivs) and at that point, it was the only water left in town. HEB, WalMart, Sam’s, etc were all out. Again, people were quarreling and hugging their water, daring anyone to look sideways at them….and paying 2–3x the normal price without blinking. I decided ~ again ~ that I was very happy to have my 50–60 gallons at home and stepped back out of the fray.

That day really changed the way I see people, unfortunately. I did see examples of positive action (and boy, you should have seen the look on one gal’s face when I gave her the few cans of tuna and beans that I had added to my cart!) but by in large, once that panic mode took over, it was sheer, survival-of-the-fittest, every-person-for-themselves blind grabbing of anything in sight. :o(

BTW, I don’t know how it was for anyone else (and it makes me think of that thread on what sells out first in a panic) but the absolute highest value commodities here, the ones that sold out way before the others, were: water, batteries, any kind of canned protein, TP, and bread. Not coincidentally, those have been among my top prep items since that day…I figure I can sail down the baking aisle and pick up corn syrup and olive oil while everyone else is fighting over the Spam. ;o)

ssol – at 11:14

Bluebonnet – at 09:55 Thanks for the Rita info. I had not considered towns actually barricading off ramps from Interstates. That’s going to take some thinking. My wife and I do not have a bugout plan. We live in NE Pa. and are not exposed to hurricanes or any natural reason to leave. Our semi-rural home is the bugout location for several other families in town though.

I have hoped that if panflu hits hard, that the bridges to NJ would be closed to limit the exodus from NYC. Perhaps the state would do that as a quarantine measure.

We have not endured a storm like Rita. We do get torrential rains and very bad flooding from East coast hurricanes because Pa. is so hilly - the runoff creates very bad flooding. Our worst experience has been 9 days without power in February 2004 due to an ice storm. Coal and wood stoves, propane ovens and a well kept most discomfort at bay.

Your comments about not being able to restock is something that I need to think more carefully about. We have a good pantry and 300 gallons of water, but I may need to think about buying a farm tank for gasoline if the region was knocked on it’s knees for a length of time.

What most disturbs my wife and I in the link is the lawlessness. We have 3 other families within 3 miles that are like-minded and all of the adults agree that if TSHTF, a group home would be necessary to provide round-the-clock watches. But I have my doubts about some of the women - I cannot see two of them willingly leaving their homes to come to mine. They are very wrapped up with their homes. The men have all agreed that mine is the most defensible because I can see 100 to 300 yards in either direction, everyone else is in heavily wooded areas. So, it may be difficult to put together a watch until there are lawless bands in the immediate area. We do not know all our immediate neighbors and several of them are not good neighbors in the best of times.

But the reality this man wrote about highlights the moral decay in our cities and elsewhere. It is clear that the lawlessness was not confined to inner-city New Orleans but also occurred throughout rural Mississippi. I doubt this would have happened 50 years ago. The ‘entitlement’ mentality is a clear risk to all of us.

2beans – at 11:57

Weather forecast as of this a.m. is that tropical dep. will enter the gulf by next week. I’m going to check the walmart on Monday out of curiosity but I’m already certain of what I’ll find. There will be no batteries, lanterns or battery-operated light sources of any kind other than maybe a few Korean-made, beason-type flashlights. They will be sold out of bottle water and beer.

Bluebonnet – at 12:12

PJ - My first preps were always protein, toilet paper and water. Anything I added after that I considered a luxury.

SSOL - yes, I was aghast to hear the tales told by family. There were several news reports that whole towns were refusing to help evacuees due to the Katrina nightmare. The Governor of my state has now mandated a 72 hour evacuation rather than the 36 hour rule for Rita. Hopefully, this will alleviate some of the pressures on fuel.

I am focusing my preps now on the restock issues. My primary concern is not with food or water but with OTC meds, prescription meds, etc. My husband and I are blessed in that we can order 3 months of prescription meds at a time. This is my most crucial prep at this point as my husband is a diabetic and cannot live without his meds.

I am also stocking a few cans of gasoline just in case. I think your plan for group defense is an excellent one. Hopefully if/when the time comes, those women will be too scared to resist moving in with one another.

My husband and I were the only ones left on our street during the Rita evacuation. Being alone with all the vacant houses was a VERY scary situation. One of our neighbors returned home after spending 12 hours and only going 2 miles on the freeway. I am currently talking to neighbors on the street about this evacuation issue. More than half have told me they will NOT evacuate no matter what. I stick in bird flu every once in a while, too!

Yes, the entitlement mentality in this country is amazing to me as well. 1800 Katrina folks here in Houston had their electricity cut off this week per local media. “We didn’t know we had to start paying for electricity.” GAHHH!!!!!!

Keep prepping!

North of Houston – at 14:48

I agree with 2beans…only I’m hopefully making the Walmart/Sam’s run this weekend. We have a business membership to Sam’s, so I’ll go early. Haven’t seen the new tracking on the depression. There was supposed to be an update today with course and percentages for landfall. DH already talking about where to evacuate to if we have to leave.

SPAM ALERT – at 14:59

Don’t want to drift too far from flu-related topics, but see
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at5+shtml/145324.shtml?5day
for 5-day track for TD5 (soon to become TS Ernesto?). No landfall prediction yet, but headed for the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.

One of my responsibilities here at work is to track storms, since they can impact our ability to complete our orders for telecom circuits, so I’m on the mailing list from the National Hurricane Center and have bookmarks to all of the major weather-related sites…

Dennis in Colorado – at 15:01

…and,if you don’t change your Author name, you show as “Spam Alert”… <sigh>

26 October 2006

Closed - Bronco Bill – at 20:57

Closed to maintain Forum speed.

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