Rick Perry, otherwise known as "Governor Pretty Hair" referred to those residents of Galveston who have refused to leave the island as "knuckleheads" (http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/Perry_proposes_revolving_disaster_fund_.html). After all, they were warned that Ike was coming and that they might, as Mayor Lyda Ann Miller put it, "face certain death." Those that stayed anyway and survived now pose a problem: They must be fed, housed, and evacuated, which takes time away from the assessment and clean-up efforts on the hurricane-ravaged island. Many bloggers and posters all over the web agree with him -- what part of "mandatory evactuation" and "certain death" don't those people understand?
Well, while I agree that riding out a hurricane on a barrier island is not the most prudent thing to do, I can understand where "those" people are coming from.
More below...
I have a good friend who was born in Galveston and still has family there. I spent my last two summer vacations on the island, and I met several of the locals. I have a good idea who left and who didn't.
Those who left are the ones who have a little money saved, friends and family inland who can take them in, or all of the above. Many of them have reliable transportation and insurance. While their situation is tough and will get tougher as the evacuation continues, they have hope that in the end, somehow, they will be okay.
Some of those that stayed were indeed the "knuckleheads" and thrill seekers (I watched an interview with some manchild who said he wanted to surf the day after). Others, however, were so desperate that they preferred "certain death" to the life of an evacuee.
They were the ones that remembered the horrors of the Hurricane Rita exodus, when the evacuation turned out deadlier than the storm itself. Many of them have no one except their pets, and they would rather die than be separated from them. Even though the evacuation buses allow pets, once they reach their destination, the cats and dogs are housed, separately from their owners, in small cages in airport hangars. I've seen them (I am an animal shelter volunteer), and my dog would come unglued in one of those.
Many of them preferred facing Ike to the uncertainty of life as a homeless person. They have no insurance since they can't afford the premiums. They have no money saved up because they have lived from paycheck to paycheck. They have no place else to go. Emergency shelters won't stay open forever.
Why, one might ask, would they live in an area that's so hurricane-prone? Well, that's where their jobs are/were. Today there are many people on the forums who mourn the loss of the Balinese Ballroom and inquire how their favorite hotels are doing and whether the cruise they booked will be cancelled. They should remember that it was the "knuckleheads" who cleaned their toilets, bussed their tables, and made their beds when they had such a good time in Galveston.
So why don't they get an education and apply for better jobs? Well, how much can one spend on a college tuition while living on minimum wage?
It's not that Gov. Perry doesn't care, he just doesn't get it.