Just wanted to clarify, we weren't, I repeat we were not under an evacuation order and this may come as a complete surprise to many of you but the residents of Houston were told to stay in their homes, hunker down and ride out the storm there because the last time they tried to evacuate Houston, there was a total gridlock on the freeways and over 3 million people sat in their cars on the roads for 3 days....yep 3 days and every single one of them would have drowned in their cars if the hurricane they were trying to flee from had indeed hit them, so for those of you that are wondering why people don't evacuate, please educate yourselves before being judgemental, there's a lot more to it than meets the eye. If you are not under a mandatory evacuation there's no sense in getting on the freeway and getting in the way of those that are ordered to evacuate. Also, all medical personnel, fireman and law enforcement are ordered to stay, as well as all oil refinery personnel (you know, the people that supply you with gasoline) there are also people that stay behind with loved ones that aren't able to evacuate, add to that the elderly, the ill, the homeless and the mentally ill, public works personnel and journalists. Some people stay because they know that they will run out of gas if they are stuck on the road in traffic for more than 24 hours trying to evacuate, what are they to do then, it's not like the gas stations are open. This is the equivolant of evacuating ALL of New England at one time, millions of people not just a handful. From a political standpoint, any idea how many U.S. tax-payer dollars it would take to feed, clothe and house 4 or 5 million people? There are lots of reasons why people don't/can't leave just please keep this in mind...the people of the Gulf Coast region have been through enough and many of us have lost everything we own and really don't want to have someone who doesn't have all the facts tell us that we're stupid for staying, when we see people being rescued in from flood waters in other parts of the U.S., we don't think that they're stupid for staying even though they stayed after 20 inches of rain was forecast for their area and they knew about it, we're empathetic and sypathetic of their loss, it's hard losing your home and everything in it...your memories, your children's pictures....I personally have been struck by 2 hurricanes in 10 days and I stayed, if you don't understand any of the reasons stated above, hang on to your pants because you might understand this one....I went into a flare a couple of days before Ike hit, probably due to the stress of hurricane Gustav and I wasn't up to it packing up my truck, driving to God knows where and then sitting in my truck for God knows how long because there are no hotel rooms available...I know people that had to go all the way to Oklahoma to get a hotel room....besides, you can't get away from the fury of a storm this size, people were killed up in Maryland by Ike....Gotta run now, 2 of my dogs have been called in, they are FEMA Search & Recovery Registered, I'm sure somebody will be very happy that we're still here.....
