Emergency Evacuation: To Stay or to Go?

Natural disasters have devastating results. Homes are destroyed, friends and families are left missing, wildlife is killed. Residents of the affected area are warned that there will be a natural disaster that can put their lives at risks. If they are warned that their lives are in harm’s way, why don’t the locals move to a safe environment where their lives won’t be at risk? 

Scientists are saying that the lack of communication results in many locals staying in their home and stocking up on food supply, putting boards on their windows and turning on the generator. What scientists are finding is that many people misunderstand the danger that they are in. The most common answer is, “we get rain and flooding all the time, it can’t be that bad.” According to The New York Times, for example, the most recent hurricane, hurricane Michael, was expected to have massive wind storms and flooding, but people chose to ignore that prediction. The end result  was on average 3 feet of rain, but in other places they averaged 13 feet of water. As if 13 feet of water wasn’t enough, there were also wind speeds up to 220 mph.

Another factor of why locals don’t move out from these danger zones is because it’s where they were born and raised as a kid and hope to one day to do the same for their child. Another reason why locals stay is that they don’t have enough money to flee the city or country. People in these circumstances lack money to be able to have transportation, gas, and to stay in a hotel to wait out the natural disaster.

In my personal opinion, I think it’s unwise not to leave during these dangerous circumstances, choosing homes and property instead of lives, but at the same time, I can understand why you wouldn’t want to leave your whole life and childhood behind to be destroyed. For those who don’t have the money to get out of these situations, it would be very hard to leave, and I can mostly understand why they would need to stay behind and wait it out. Countries and governments should help the not-so-wealthy people out of the natural disasters, and locals who don’t have money to leave on their own should be taken care of until the danger has passed.