Survey Shows Stubborness of Some

On the front page of Tuesday's edition of the News-Press, Pat Gillespie writes about a Harvard University survey conducted among residents in hurricane prone areas. More than 5,000 adults were polled in seven states, including Florida. All the participants lived within 20 miles of a coastline.

Several questions around hurricane preparedness were asked, but the one that caught my attention (and that of the headline writer for the News-Press) was that, writes Gillespie, "about one in three people...said they would ignore government hurricane evacuation orders..."

This statistic gave me pause. Now, believe me, I am as wary as anyone (more than most, actually) of what my government tells me. You have to question everything these days, given all the ulterior motives floating around out there. But are these folks doubting the veracity of the hurricane experts and their decision to issue an evacuation order? I'm sure they don't take a decision like that lightly. Seems to me that when you're told to get, you better get!!

Gerald Campbell, the chief of planning for Lee County Emergency Management, is right when he says that if people choose to ignore such an order, they will be "literally putting their lives at risk". Sounds like a bad choice to me...Campbell goes on to say that when people don't leave when told to do so, they are "gambling with their lives".

Two basic rules of gambling are that you should always know the odds, and you should always be able to handle the stakes if you lose. Seems to me that when a hurricane is headed your way, the stakes are too high and the odds are too long to make that bet.

Regards,
Stormy