In my Navy days, I lived eight or so years in the southern states, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.  I was in Kingsland, GA when Hugo went by and destroyed Charleston, SC.  Every year from the beginning of June to the end of November you had to worry about Mother Nature gutting your home and ravishing everything you hold dear.  People would ask me why I wanted to move back to Oregon when I got out of the Navy.  My response was always the same, I didn’t have to put up with hurricanes, tornadoes, killer lightening strikes, snakes or alligators.  They’d come back with, but it rains all the time.  So here we are at the fifth anniversary of Katrina.  I remember when that storm hit my thought was this rain isn’t so bad.  I’m not as sure about the Gulf Coast, but on the East Coast, if a hurricane misses you and hits fifty miles to the north, it doesn’t affect you, at all.  This is one of the reasons people wait until the last minute to evacuate.  It’s a sad situation they can’t predict better where the hurricane will make land fall, but there are just too many things that influence the storm.

  I understood why the people of New Orleans didn’t evacuate the city immediately.  But once the order went out they did not seem to have a good plan to get people out.  Which is a huge problem.  Remember the school buses still in the parking garage?  I thought it laughable that everyone blamed the government for the problems of New Orleans.  Why didn’t they get aid in sooner?  I talked with truck drivers who drive the area from time to time.  They said the roads where impassable.  The harbor was a mess.  The only way in was by helicopter, which takes a while to get organized.  If you live in an area where a major storm, of any type, can cut you off from essentials of life, you need to keep a supply on hand.  How many of us has a week or so supply on food on hand, or water?

  If people want to live in these storm plagued areas, they should pay a little more insurance than the rest of us.  Granted I don’t want all those people living in the Pacific Northwest, but why should I supplement their cost of insurance.  I remember a guy who had a vacation home on one of the islands off Charleston, SC.  Twice in the same year hurricanes took his roof off the house.  His said it wasn’t a problem, insurance would cover it.  How much did Katrina cost the American people?  Just so a bunch of people can live in an area below sea level and susceptible to hurricanes.  I’ll be completely honest, I really don’t care about the people of New Orleans.  I am sorry for those who lost loved ones.  But if you moved back into the city after the water level was back to normal, then you are a fool and deserve what you get in the future.