Here's your sign...

[autographedcat]

Driving home from work today, I was listening to the NPR report about evacuations along the Gulf Coast in preperation for Hurricane Ivan. One of the families interviewed was indicating that they were planning to stay in their Orange Beach, Alabama, home and ride out the storm. The woman being interviewed actually said:

"Well, we thought about heading to Mobile, or maybe New Orleans, but you never know, you might end up at even more risk there."

And I instantly thought, "I couldn't help but noticing you seem to have more or less ignored north. I would have thought that north was a particularly promising direction to flee."

Sheesh.

Comments

[snowy.livejournal.com]

People who live along the coast in Alabama who don't evacuate, quite frankly, are stupid. This will rank as one of the fiercest hurricanes to ever strike the US. Only Andrew in recent memory will have been worse... and Hugo right behind it. It seems to be hard to impress on some people that this storm is as strong as Charley was but 3 times as large!!! The sheer scope of winds and water will cause catastrophic damage along the beaches.

Heck, even *I'd* get the hell out of the way of this one, and I'm a person who would love to experience a hurricane, being a meteorologist.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Gulf Coasters don't believe in the North. Except of course in terms of The War of Northern Aggression.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

I believe it was Dennis Miller who coined the phrase "Darwin's Waiting Room".

You! Out of the Gene Pool !

[annonynous.livejournal.com]

Yes, north (or northeast or northwest) might well be a good direction to flee from something coming from the south.
As long as it's uphill? :)

New Orleans would be about the last place you'd want to flee to. Aside from having Lake Ponchartrain to the north
and the Mississippi River flowing through it, New Orleans is below sea level! Glub, glub, glub.

Ann O.

Thinning the herd?

[poltr1]

I think we have this week's Idiot of the Week, or a new potential member for Densa. Worst case scenario is that we would have a new Darwin Award winner.

Bet this person votes Republican. :-)

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

"Well, we thought about heading to Mobile, or maybe New Orleans, but you never know, you might end up at even more risk there."

That "might" gives me hope that that person's IQ is at least in double digits. Though maybe it's the "we" implying she's adding her IQ to her husband's.

annonynous is right: the key direction you want to go anytime that flood water is involved is UP. (Just ask Noah.) Which leaves New Orleans right out of contention.

[cellio]

New Orleans?! Is she completely bonkers? They're below sea lavel!

Yeah, north would seem to be the obvious answer here, along with "up". Sheesh.

[annonynous.livejournal.com]

Someone did mention to me a possible reason for not heading north - the hotels would already be No Vacancy by that time.
The same person told me that the woman was on the Gulf coast, which would leave east or west as directions of flight.
There would likely be rooms available in Mobile or New Orleans. For whatever that'd be worth. [g]

Ann O.