DISABLED,ALONE,NO CAR-HELP THEM EVACUATE

[john186292]

There are many disabled with no family, and being disabled, they have no way to make friends for years. Friends from before disability, move away, or just forget about them, or marry and get too busy.
////////So I urge you to help them evacuate. They have no car, usually, and cannot drive anyhow. Cabs may be too expensive at buck fifty a mile...they must evacuate farther than you, as they may have heart conditions that make a/c necessity.
//////////So they are doomed unless someone like you takes them along. Take two of them. My town, according to tv news feature, has NO plans to evacuate the thousands with no car. No plans. No chartered busses or trains. They are toast, history, according to our town's planners.
I am away from Izzy danger myself, just posting this for those who ARE over there on the east coast.
/////////Find the disabled and alone, by contacting a church ... they may have such members ... or contact the local welfare office... or look around your own neighborhood...is there a house where you know a disabled person lives, and you never see a visitor? He is probably one of the isolated ones, with no family left, or friends left. Don't assume your town has plans to evacuate him. Mine does NOT. //////Towns have let 23 years go by without rescuing the homeless and putting them in apartments ... why assume they will rescue the disabled in a storm?
////////Be a true hero - take two disabled persons with you as you evacuate, and if possible, tell them immediately it will be no charge, so they don't worry about that. If you need to split expenses, talk about that immediately so they will not worry until that is clarified.
Best Regards,
John New Orleans
=John186292

[HurricaneQueen]

GREAT insight and post. At a time like this most of us are too focused on our immediate familes to think about the less fortunate.

[Nature's Fury]

I agree. I feel like a hotel in times like this. Like the commerical for Motel 6. "I'll leave the light on for ya!" I have family members and their elderly neighbors etc coming from Topsail Island. I am at least 175 miles from the coast. Better than being right on the coast. Our Interstate is said to be getting all east and west traffic going all west shortly. They may do that tonight. They do this everytime we are threaten with a hurricane so the traffic moves easier. Seems weird to see traffic heading west on East-bound lanes.
Angela

[NC George]

I just check out the distances on my map, you are 100 miles from Cape Fear, 85 miles away from the coast at the Snead's Ferry/Swansboro area, and 170 miles from Cape Hatteras.

[tazdevil]

If mandatory evacuations are put in effect, most counties and citys will provide school buses to take everyone to shelters. Check with officals in your area for more info. and notify them of any disabled persons who may need extra assistance.

[Nature's Fury]

George,
I must be going by driving miles there. Seems to be the average I have driven when I visit my Aunt. Thanks for letting me know though..I guess thanks is in order..or "Shucks! You just had to tell me that!" LOL Stay Safe!
Angela

[tallbunch]

GREAT POST- don't forget also about the local shelters for animals...they ALL need to leave

[themusk]

Excellent point. Since I've become disabled myself, I've become painfully aware that emergency planning rarely involves realistic planning for disabled persons. The presumption is that somehow disabled persons are responsible for fending for themselves; given that many disabled persons can't even bathe or feed themselves, this is a very unrealistic assumption.

I wish I had understood the problem years ago when I was working for the Natural Hazards Research Institute, and had the connections to really draw attention to the issue. I've been slowly but surely refreshing my emergency management credentials, so that when I have the energy (ha!) I can at least start to effectively nag my local emergency program manager to address the problem locally.

It's a serious problem.

[john186292]

Just want to say thank you for all the great replies...and express appreciation from those who will be assisted, but may be from the yankee background which can't express emotion well. You know, the "strong silent type."
John

[john186292]

now is the time to evacuate, if you haven't done so already. Don't risk getting caught in gridlock on the road. I have been, and it is no fun. Call ahead to reserve a motel room...use a credit or debit or "checkcard". Many have alredy done so, so if you forget this step, you will get there and find motels all reserved, even if no one is physically there yet. If you run into full mo9tels, you can still try the non-chain shabby motels, in the dangerous parts of town.
///////// buy a phone at Shak, because those motels will haavae phones that may not even work. Buy a door lock that can be added on...ones made for travellers. The door will probably have a lock, but it may wobble and make you wonder just how sturdy it is. I have heard of motels, the bottom level ones of the shabby cataegory, which have NO door locks. One here even has no doors..only curtains. Even lower, on skid row, i have heard of a place that rents chairs for folks to sleep on.
/////////Now, back to the usw shabby motels, which are far above the ones with no locks, etc. Expect NO refunds, even ones for fees that are usually refunded, like the last two or so days paid for but which you are leaving before, and will not use. Thieves own those places, and they rob because their clients cannot afford lawyers, anda owners know that.
////////Thieves like to own places with poor customers...motel and furniture and food stores down there do ripoffs never heard of by the middle class. Phone deposit? count it all gone.
///////////Get an end room, in a one story motel for quiet. Ask him not to fill your next unit till last, as a favor, for quiet. Leacve no valuables in the room when you go for food. Keep money in your sock, then under the pillo.
Good and safe trip, my friends,
John New Orleans

[john186292]

Another thought on shabby motels...Do not shop for food in the immediate area. Stores in that part of town often buy canned food that has been in fires, or "factory reject" tins, or ...who knows what. ///////They buy them at cheap prices, then mark them up. I have seen tins (in a middle class area!!) that have sloppily had new labels glued to the metal can, and the ends of the can still had poorly washed ends, with smoke on them. I have also seen cans with some odd chemical in them. I have seen "sixty minute" program revelations of some grocers changing the expiration dates on food...expired food.
////// Go to middle class areas to get your food while waiting for the storm to pass.(Later, vote for more funding for FDA food inspectors, not tax cuts for the rich. During Eisenhower's prosperous early fifties, the richest paid 90%, now it is 38%. No wonder the middle class has little help during personal crises or hurricanes. See post, "no dumptrucks or red cross".).
//////The disabled....some may have health problems that are a bit rare...you may not have heard of such. There are 5,000 diseases and disabilities...you don't know them all. Many doctors don't. Only diagnostician specialists do. "Disbelief is the biggest problem the handicapped have."
////If they say they have some odd problem you never heard of , dont write it off and ignore the need to care for that frailty. Believe it, and look after that frailty as best you can. Jesus or Buddha or whoever you follow, will smile down on you for doing this right.
STAY POSITIVE,
John New Orleans
=John186292