Klarinet Archive - Posting 000005.txt from 2005/09

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: FW: [kl] evacuations from New Orleans
Date: Thu, 01 Sep 2005 10:33:53 -0400

<<<people would have been told: You *must* get out now because if you =
don't there is a high chance you will end up dead.>>>
=A0
They were told exactly that. However, as the saying goes, "Hindsight is =
always 20/20."=A0 Some people in that region had already evacuated their =
homes and businesses twice this summer, and essentially=A0nothing =
happened.=A0 Human nature being what it is, many of them must have felt, =
consciously or unconsciously, that officials were "crying wolf once too =
often."

It is also true that many of the people who stayed there did not =
evacuate because they had no means to do so. New Orleans is, or was, a =
city with a pretty good public transportation system and overcrowded =
streets, so many people there do not have cars, and many others were too =
poor to be able to get out of the area by any means.
=A0
Suppose for a moment that people had been required by law to leave the =
area.=A0 Then, suppose the storm had been a "dud," as others had been =
recently.=A0 Then, how long would the officials who required that =
lasted?=A0 Probably they would have been criticized so loudly that it =
would have been heard all over the country.
=A0
Yes, if we could only know exactly where such storms were going to hit, =
and how much damage they would do, life would be so much simpler.
=A0
Ed Lacy
University of Evansville

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