I don't get it anymore

Like most of the country I followed the news on Katrina, including the stories of people who refused to leave. I was terribly offended at the people who said "Why won't they LEAVE?" and cited stories of the elderly, the infirm, the carless, people with no money and nowhere to go. I felt like I understood why some people didn't leave.

Well, I take that back. My husband's grandparents live in Houston and are quite elderly, both of them having had a couple of strokes. His grandmother has one working lung.

They won't leave.

It's not clear that they're at risk for flooding, probably not from direct water, but who knows about the heavy rains. They're probably at higher risk from powerloss and then heat exhaustion.

My mother in law has pleaded with them to leave, and even already told them about the "permanent marker" approach - i.e. "Fine, if you won't leave, here's a marker, write your social security number on your body with a permanent marker so that your body can be easily identified." They wouldn't do that either.

I don't understand anymore.

Oh, and here's the kicker: My husband has two uncles with families in Houston too. Except they don't talk to their parents for a variety of reasons -- from what little I know of the history, the reasons are probably pretty good ones. But still. My mother in law has not been able to get in touch with her brothers to find out what they are doing, if anything.

Comments

[Karen]

What shocks me about this story, even if there are good reasons, is that family doesn't talk to family. In spite of how crazy we all are (love ya, mean it! kiss kiss) that just would NEVER happen. I mean, I can't even imagine a scenario so awful that I wouldn't be in touch with everyone, I guess barring drug use and physically abusive stuff, but even then I'd keep TABS, if not actual contact. In talking to other friends I have discovered that this is somewhat unusual...even in DH's family there have been years-long "breaks." Weird.

Meanwhile, I hope for the best.

K

[Cynical Mom]

Yeah, I don't get it either. It's one thing to just not have a lot in common and not chat much, but to not speak to each other in times of emergency... i don't understand how you get to that point.

[dbt]

And now that Rita's gone, you see why so few people evacuate before storms. A lot of dire warnings, not that bad happening.

Heck, if the levees had been in slightly better shape NOLA might have been ok after Katrina -- it took nearly 24 hours for them to breach.

[Cynical Mom]

I'm not clear if you are just pointing out the "cry wolf" syndrome, or if you're agreeing that they were right not to evacuate.

If the former, I agree that yes, we are seeing cry wolf in use here. But if the latter, I still completely disagree. Based on the information available as of last week, they should have evacuated.