This women’s attitude pretty much explains why she doesn’t even have a friend with a gas grill and jar of instant coffee. Bet she thinks FEMA is handing out double lattes from Starbucks.

FPL teased us last night with ½ hr of power.

How are y'all's cell phone connections? I don't own a cell phone and maybe for this reason was surprised when they were almost useless immediately after Katrina. I assumed if a guy could cell phone his wife from Mt. Everest to tell her he was dying, then cell phones were invincible. I've been told that the problem after Katrina was twofold -- towers down and more traffic on the few towers that survived. My relatives communicated by text-messaging each other (something else I don't know how to do). And that was important given that regular service to most people wasn't returned for weeks, and in my brother's case, only yesterday.

That's the attitude the makes me fear we have lost this country. You can be wholly irresponsible, but expect the federal government to save me from myself.

We knew for at least a week that the hurricane was coming. Even though I was a couple of hundred miles north of the projected track, I refilled my water bottles, rechecked my hurricane kit food, and made sure all of my batteries were recharged.

It's just sad.

Gosh, Cindy. I was worried that would happen here. I boiled kettles of water and refilled the thermos so I could have hot tea. But it held. Weston is a new city, so we have buried cables here and are doing well for electricity.

When the man across the street was bitching about a line five miles to Markham Park, I asked him what was in Markham Park that anybody would want. He said ice and water. This was the Tuesday, the day after the storm. I didn't say anything. I thought me and my husband sucked at preparation, but we did manage to lift a finger to help ourselves and bought hurricane supplies. Ice and water on Tuesday. Sheesh.

A TV reporter was whining this morning that he didn't have batteries for his radio. I wrote the station about his whining prattle. He shows long-term lack of preparation. He must not have done anything to get ready for Katrina either.

I don't use a cell phone, Salt. My husband's wasn't working depending on who he was trying to call. I have heard that text messaging can get around alot of problems.

OMG are we related?

I have been bitching about the whole lack of personal responsibility and hurricanes bit for ages, no one seems to listen. I am so glad to meet you :)

All I can say is I am adding you to my growing list of new heroes!

Stay on it girl, you are right on track!!

Jess

I absolutely agree, personal responsibility, it's all about personal responsibility. We had a good 5 days to get ready for Wilma. It's not tough to get gas, ice, food & water for 72 hours. For so many to have not prepared, especially on the heels of Katrina,is very discouraging. The media making a big deal out of FEMA's response is irresponsible. I'd much rather have the local government take care in emergencies anyways. We should not allow Congress to federalize relief efforts, as is currently being considered.
Jen in Coral Springs (Broward)

Even I as a child knew how to (and did) prepare for a hurricane, including very sizable ones that hit Central Florida when I lived there. I knew even what to do DURING a hurricane, and even AFTER one.

With hurricanes, unlike tornados, earthquakes, there is advance notice. You have several days, minimum, to store and save, to prepare and plan. Anyone with even a meager income or even no income but small savings can buy a cooler, a thermos (or several of both), a bottle of bleach, clean out the bathtub with the bleach and fill it with fresh water, make sure you have clean clothes and a lot of canned food and drinkable water, that you have batteries, candles and matches and a flashlight or two, even old timey hurricane lamps (which, to this day, I still keep along with a lot of lamp oil stored and ready -- works just fine to light up a whole room and you don't even have to use batteries that way), even a cook stove (boil water, make coffee/tea and heat soups and things, even hot water to wash face and hands), buy some powdered milk, instant coffee, make sure your domicile is secure or else go where you are secure if not and board up your windows, round up the pets and/or take care that the livestock has high ground and shelter...including your car/s...

The list is so basic and simple and can be done by anyone in even one day, much moreso the several days that advance that most of us get and always have, even back when I was a child contesting with many storms, nearly every few years.

The lady's migraine is surely due to caffeine withdrawal but she has herself to blame for not doing so much as getting a jar of instant coffee ahead of time and several bottles of water ... or, for the very, very lazy, just buying a flat of the premade Starbucks coffee-with-milk at most stores.

People who complain on the three days after a storm about not having basic supports only have themselves to blame. It's really hard to believe anyone now or then (same types is the thing, now and in times past so modernity has nothing to do with this) doesn't do so much as ensure they have the basics for at least three days, if not two weeks. It's very, very easy to prepare for two weeks' survival, even for bathing what with the bathtub and most pools available for a bucket of water when needed...sun will heat up several gallons quickly and, presto, clean.

I once had the misfortune of having a woman move into my neighborhood, staying in someone's house as a rental, who had two children. She drove a new Honda, had a fine set of acrylic nails on her hands and then the kids would come to my door, knocking, asking if they could use my can opener to open the cans of soup their mother left for them in the evenings for their supper.

I'd open their cans for them and see their sweet little faces (a THREE YEAR OLD and a seven year old, left alone to deal with their supper themselves) and make sure they walked safely back to the house where they were staying, and then, after their third appearance at my door, same need, I went to the market and bought them a can opener and walked it over to their house.

It's people like that that really test the human definition of civilization.

Oh, and I meant to include that the two children were alone in the evenings, fending for themselves, trying to contend with what to do with these cans of soup for supper, no can opener. I only found out they were by themselves when I took that can opener to them after their third knock on my door, third evening, with their meager cans of soup for supper. A three year old and a seven year old.

I can barely express my outrage at this, those two kids, their circumstances.

The stories the MSM chooses to cover about the hurricanes are having a backlash effect, atleast among my circle of friends. I'm hearing comments along the lines of 'even I would have enough sense to stock up on water, canned food, etc., etc. and the worst we get around here are the remnants of hurricanes.' Blaming FEMA, even blaming state and local governments, is wearing thin.

Absolutely, Retread. The bitching started waaaaay too soon.

Suzie, what you were seeing with those kids was neglect. I have no problem calling the authorities on people like that. Your other hurricane post was excellent. What do people in the Great Plains do about blizzards? Sit there in their unstocked houses and die?

My question is this: How long have these people lived in Florida?

If the answer is > 6 months, then they have little excuse, particularly in the wake of Katrina. Have these people been living in a cave?

This happens EVERY YEAR, and will reportedly be the prevailing pattern for the next 15-20 years. If these people cannot learn what's required for living in a subtropical zone prone to the depredations of large tropical weather systems, then they should probably live elsewhere.

It may sound callous, but I'm having a hard time mustering much compassion for some of these folks.

Donnah, I tried to complain about those two children, that "mother" (who I also later heard striking the tiny girl and nearly flipped out, Lily style when I heard that while walking past one day)...but got ridiculed on the phone about even calling. It was a very depressing experience in trying to do the right thing (at least I bought them a can opener, cost all of a few dollars, far less than a new set of acrylic nails every two weeks on their "mother")...

I was immensely relieved shortly after I heard that slapping around that the child was no longer in that home (older, boy child told me that the three-year old girl had gone back to live with her father, thank God, because it seems that she has a good father otherwise who had sense and caring enough to get her back to him and out of that woman's "home" -- they weren't married is what the boy told me).

Yes, it was abuse, I agree. I tried to do what was possible lawfully and let people who had greater authority intervene, notify them. They found my call a bother, unfortunately. But at least the girl is now safe. The boy seems older enough with also a good father enough (not the same father, also not married to that woman, the "mother") to have remained well taken care of otherwise (intelligent, in school, has a father who visits with him and provides for him but mostly I'm thinking that's where the acrylic nails come from), given the circumstances, if I can even say that.

About other things, after living through-as-normal many a ten/twelve foot snow drift all around the house on many, many a day in the Colorado Rockies (and on roads and elsewhere outside otherwise in similar conditions there), you just don't live there without the emergency supplies in the car and more of same at home.

So it's (also) worn extremely thin to me to read about the ongoing blaming by people who seem so irresponsible that they can't even plan for their own survival for three meager days...it's remarkable so many people are quite so unable to care for themselves and still own property and such.

The whining from these idiots irritates me to no end. What's wrong with turning on the faucet before the storm? And I heard that water was drinkable in most areas after the storm too. I have zero sympathy for these lazy losers.