As Floyd became the media event of the week. -----where will Floyd hit!!!! news team coverage followed it all the way up the east coast. Most media seemed down right dissapointed at the lack of wind and destruction. Mostly heavy rain!!

The story that the media missed lay back in florida and Georgia.

The ineptness of what took place there should be a case in point as to how government treats the masses. 180 mile grid lock with no place to go. The greatest mass exodus in the history of the U.S. Reports our just now coming in as to the debacle that took place when the powers that be gave their instructions.

Doomers take note!!!

-- David Butts (dciinc@aol.com), September 16, 1999

Answers

David: I don't like the nasty yolks either.

I started really worrying about Y2K when I heard the emergency folks talk about getting people to shelters. The whole idea illustrated very clearly the lack of understanding of the problem. The idea that vast numbers of people can be accommodated in shelters is ludicrous.

When my server (in Charleston, SC) comes back up, you can read my "Bean Theory" on www.y2kkitchen.com. I wrote it last fall. As I watch the news stories, I am so glad to be prepared for Y2K.

Remember, if the power goes out, you won't be seeing cars making their way to safety. You will see cars sitting in the road with empty gas tanks. The gas stations will not be able to pump even if they have gas. There will be nowhere for the people to go anyway.

The only possible solution is for people to shelter in place for Y2K. Only in case of chemical incident or something of that nature, should it be necessary for people to leave their homes.

The emergency folks will not be able to help you! Take care of yourself!

-- Sally Strackbein (sally@noemail.today), September 16, 1999.

Yep, amazing fiasco with Biggest Evacuation In PeaceTime History. This while the infrastructure up and running purrrrfectly, warm outside, supply lines still flowing, communication still working. Hhhmm. Another Big Clue. Are the clueless watching?

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 16, 1999.

just a widdle 3-day storm (maybe they'll tweak their analogy)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 16, 1999.

Worse, once evacuated, they wouldn't let them back in - even though the hurricane was very early on on a course to go well past the nearest coastline to GA or FL..

The message I got was the media's utter domination by the government: whatever FEMA, GEMA (GA Emergency Mgmt), or the NWS said was religiously repeated. The media was slvish in their effort to paint the government's efforts as the ultimate social benefactor.

Photo's of the GEMA headquarters showed a lot of military (Army camo) uniforms inside.

Granted, National Guard and Army help is warranted, and so the military presence is not unexpected - but notice that the Clintons declared FL, GA, and SC/NC disaster areas BEFORE the hurricane struck.

Confirms that Martial law will be declared - before the New Year.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 16, 1999.

Folks, if people start fleeing cities, especially in the North, in the winter, looking for some kind of shelter in the event of water/sewer/electric failures, we won't be seeing too many of them make it to the country.........

A call to action like this without prior plans is a disaster.

The Red Cross has cots for 250 people in my local county of almost 250,000. 1/10 of one percent.

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), September 16, 1999.

Robert, one thing we learned in our FEMA certification classes was that often they DON'T let ppl back in, to "hazardous" or "damaged" or "questionable" areas, for a llooonnngggg time. They don't have enough personnel to do all the inspections quickly. As soon as we studied the implications, we vowed to never let ourselves be evacuated.

If the sewage backs up, the 'victims' will never get back in, after the 1st 24 hours. Of course, if the whole country backs up TPTB will hardly be able to enforce the boot ;^)

We learned that, after an earthquake, savvy folks will quickly hide their fallen chimney bricks so perimeter inspectors won't as easily X the house. Fast repair & "hide" is the motto if you want to stay at home.

We'd rather be miserable in the privacy of our little abode than "sharing" with 1000s of others in the same or worse shape. Happy to oblige compliancy with the toe tag Emergency folks and write our next of kin on the forms if it buys privacy.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 16, 1999.

On a more personal level. If I did not prepare for y2k I would not have been ready for Floyd. Because of y2k I have a tri-fuel generator, barrels for drinking water, food, lights, extra fuel, and a baygen.

Q: Is this what it will be like after Christmas this year?

-- BB (peace2u@bellatlantic.net), September 16, 1999.

I don't know, and perhaps I deserve to be thoroughly flamed for this, but it seems in hindsight that 99% of the 3million people who were evacuated would have been better off staying at home.

Yeah yeah, hindsight better than foresight and all that...better safe than sorry, right??

Well. Seeing that huge cold front in the East made it pretty obvious to me Tuesday AM that the Floyd probably wouldn't make landfall anywhere near Florida, and that it would again hit the Cape Fear/ Hatterass area, if it all. Me being a peon of little brain figured this out. Why didn't TBTB figure it out?

Maybe they did. Maybe they wanted to simply "beta test" evacuation procedures on a hapless population, to see where the glitches and snags occured so as to improve efficiency in the event of a future disaster.

Forgive me, I'm in a little bit of a paranoid mood today. Maybe there was a strange fungus in my coffee pot...let me continue.

What if the Feds were just doing it to (1) acclimate people to the idea of being uprooted and herded into shelters or (2) harass people with the audacity to live in private property near the coast, and fuel anti- development / wetlands reclamation strategy by making it too costly and too much of a hassle to take up residence east of the Intercoastal Waterway.

Ooohhh. That's going a little far. Or is it? Who knows?

On the other hand, there's the story of the stupid people in the hurricane party on the beach when Camille(?) hit. Not one of them survived and most were not even recovered. Those people clearly should have cleared out when they were ordered to. Still, one can only guess why Floyd has been such a debacle when other storms of comparable ilk never provoked mass-evacuation response.

-- coprolith (coprolith@rocketship.com), September 16, 1999.

A few things to take with you to a disaster shelter:

Lice spray, bleach, antibacterial soap, Lysol spray, plastic forks and spoons, face masks, bottled water, and latex surgical gloves.

-- germ freak (germfreak@germfreakkk.com), September 16, 1999.

Wet wipes!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 16, 1999.

Coprolith, I think you have it all figured out to a "T." I'm on the west coast and just watching it all from here, I had the same thoughts that you stated. For Y2K, the only reason anyone should have to leave their home is for food and water if they have not prepared. They'll be waiting in line for hours just to get a sack of beans. Remember all those pictures we use to see on the news of Russians standing in line for hours just to get a cup of cooking oil? No thanks!

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), September 16, 1999.

Coprolith,

Said:"I don't know, and perhaps I deserve to be thoroughly flamed for this, but it seems in hindsight that 99% of the 3million people who were evacuated would have been better off staying at home."

If you think about it and also see the pictures of the poor people on the roads getting out of their cars--it is actually very comical!! imho.

Here is why.----weatherman says catergory 4-5 hurricane may hit florida on Tues.

Government Leaders 24hours in advance----thats 24hours folks-- instructs two MILLION---that TWO MILLION people(s) to evacuate!!??

When I heard this on Monday, The first thing my mind imagined was-- how in the hell are two million people going to fit on interstate 95.

But what really impressed me was, I really think all two million left at the same time.

You have got to laugh at profound stupidity of it all!!! very Scary!!

-- David Butts (dciinc@aol.com), September 16, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California

A few comments above about items to include in a mandatory evac shelter bag inspired me to start a thread about Shelter Bags at the preparation forum.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), September 16, 1999.

Answering a conglomeration of the above posts, all I can say is 1) Floyd was one BMF of a storm, no question, no doubt. 2) Emergency teams had no choice but to shift into high gear. A little practice for the future? Perhaps. But so what, that's O.K. with me. Practice makes perfect. I mean, they didn't PLAN Floyd, right? Why not use it as a "what if" scenerio. Stupid not to. 3) My biggest ALOHA to all of you who have been visited by Floyd. I know some of you have been hit very badly, and I hope that the support systems are in place to help you recover. I went through Iniki, and so I can well understand. All in all, it could have been so very much worse (that monster (Floyd) was unbelievable; I still can't get over the immensity of it).

Anyway, anyone posting here should simply be offering their love and support to our brothers and sisters who have been afflicted. They don't need to be tested further. Aloha always, grngrl

-- grngrl (jhandt@gte.net), September 17, 1999.

A few thoughts from the danger zone.

Nobody was forced to leave. The police cannot physically remove you from your home, but they do their best to scare you out. If you decide to stay they take your name and next of kin.

If that storm had picked up speed and veered off of it's course by a few degrees on Monday night hitting full force in the early evening, we might well have lost tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of trapped motorists. So, if I'm sitting for six and a half hours in stalled traffic, watching people walk their dogs, seeing gas trucks coming and filling up those who have run out, do you think that I might be worried about that very same thing? You betcha. Does that make me much less likely to evacuate next time? What do you think? Also, I heard over and over and over again that "I'll decide if I'm leaving when I get up on Tuesday." THAT is why everybody left at once, they all decided to do so at the same time. My neighbors who bugged out all left within an hour of each other.

Living here on the east coast of FL, one would assume that most folks have basic hurricane preps in place. But, from what I can see every time a hurricane threatens, I have my doubts about that. The first storm to scare us after we moved in was a real eye opener. If you wait until there is less than 48 hours before the predicted event you will likely get screwed. That is a shocker the first time it happens to you.

The shelves empty very fast once the buying begins. It is almost comical to see the reactions of the other shoppers in the stores. What you will witness is a remarkable demonstration of the effect of "Social Proof" on people. I watch for it. The play-by-play would sound like this:

"This is Howard Cosell, the lady in the house dress is eyeing those people at the battery rack, she glances into their carts before moving along. Hold it, she is slowing down, she stops....yes folks, she is reversing course...at the thirty, the twenty, the ten, she SCORES! Chalk up a four pack of D-cells for the visiting team!"

Then the ruckus at the battery rack attracts more and more sharks to the feeding frenzy, the same thing happens to the water jugs and so on down the line. Shelves get wiped out quickly once it starts. Now with the wide use of cell phones it happens even faster than it used to. "Hey bro, I'm just calling to let you know you'd better get your ass down here before it's all gone."

The lesson learned from Floyd?

The buying for Y2K will begin on the evening of Dec 28th.

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), September 17, 1999.