on Adrianne Curry's "Controversial" Comments About Hurricane Ike at 14:21 09/15/2008 as a reply on the comment by cali vilano

I do volunteer work, and have for all the other storms. As I do not know you, you do not know me or my actions so do assume that I am going to sit around and do nothing about this.

on Adrianne Curry's "Controversial" Comments About Hurricane Ike at 14:11 09/15/2008 as a reply on the comment by cali vilano

The only one who looks to be uneducated here is you…yes FEMA is a non profit organization they are not the ones conducting the rescues. I worked for FEMA for many years so know how FEMA works they are shit, and do not help out much. When I left we still had people without homes due to Katrina and Rita almost a year after the storm hit that qualified for FEMA trailers and assistance yet were given nothing while FEMA was still footing the bill for some to live in hotel rooms and handing out $2000 government checks (which came from tax dollars) to residents multiple times, what kind of help is that? Don’t think for a second our tax dollars are not paying for the rescuers because they are. A lot of people did evacuate yet more than half decided to stay so it looks like Texas didn’t learn from Katrina. Those people that are begging for help after the fact are not self sufficient.

on Adrianne Curry's "Controversial" Comments About Hurricane Ike at 13:30 09/15/2008 as a reply on the comment by cali vilano

I don’t know where you are getting your information from…Houston does not have over 6 million residents first off. Secondly, as I said before I was late evacuating and although there was some traffic there was still plenty of time to leave regardless of construction. Traffic was nothing compared to Rita, it did not take 12+ hours to get out of the city, people should not have stayed. Before I left I found hotel rooms in San Antonio, Austin and Tulsa so you can not tell me that others could not have picked up a phone and found one, I also had no problem getting gas and again I left way after others did so there were still resources to get out of town.

on Adrianne Curry's "Controversial" Comments About Hurricane Ike at 13:11 09/15/2008

You should not risk your life because you don‘t want to sit in some traffic. Everyone had plenty of time and resources to get out yet they decided to stay and that should be at their own risk. Houston was hit hard, but in the city people were expected to get strong winds and unless living in a mobile home or unsafe house could have stayed they were never told they had to leave, Galveston however is another story. The residents of Galveston were given every warning as to how bad they were going to get hit, most stayed because they didn’t think it was going to be that bad…if they had turned on the weather news they would have seen how “not that bad” really was. The people Adrianne are condemning here are the ones that did what usually happens when a hurricane is coming, they throw a hurricane party only problem here was this was no small storm and they didn’t listen to the advice to leave. I had to pay to evacuate and plan on having to pay my way through this without any handouts so why should I have to work and pay taxes to pay for people too hard headed to leave. When you are told you will face certain death you need to pack up and find anyway you can to leave, and if that means staying in a public shelter or riding public transportation then so be it, if I were in the situation I wouldn’t let pride take priority to my life.

on Adrianne Curry's "Controversial" Comments About Hurricane Ike at 13:09 09/15/2008

A lot of posts are saying that people stayed because of all the evacuations in the past the difference here is that Ike was a major hurricane and no one was ever told that it wasn’t going to be. The past storms that people have evacuated for, Gustav for example, were not a threat of causing major damage to this area. There were mandatory evacuations during Gustav for areas that were in threat of high water and wind damage, Houston was not included in those mandatory evacuations. I work in Sabine Pass which got hit by Ike and is now underwater, the day before the storm I was there to make sure my office was packed up, I left late in the day and had no problem evacuating. I also had no problem finding a place to stay, I found a hotel room the day before the storm so it was not impossible. There was still power up until the day of the storm so people should have planned on getting money out of the bank, food, gas and anything else needed then knowing once power was out it would probably be a while before they would have access to necessary things but, then again that is just common sense which most do not use. People in Galveston were told way before I thought about leaving to leave or face what was going to happen without help which could result in “certain death”. There have been evacuation processes put in place after Rita, although evacuating is a pain in the ass, and yes people sat in traffic it was nothing compared to previous evacuations.