My wife has an acquaintance on the Jersey Shore who is refusing to evacuate, despite the “mandatory” evacuation order. She (my wife) had me look up how feasible it would be to drive to this woman’s house NOW and haul her and her rescued animals to safety.
Well, when I researched the address, the woman lives on a barrier island (Seaside, NJ). Her elevation is 7 feet, 600 yards from the Atlantic.
Current prediction for Seaside is 96-110 mph winds and 6-8 feet of storm surge.
Fortunately for us, the crazy plan to drive there tonight was squashed because they’ve closed the eastbound roads to support the evacuation order. Can’t get there, now.
The woman said (via phone) that she’s going to go to a multi-story hotel and “break in” and weather the storm there, taking the animals with her, after the storm starts.
I suggested telling her to go *before *the 96-110 mph winds start if she’s going.
No idea why this person has chosen this course of action – possibly because she has too many animals to take in one vehicle, and didn’t think of calling the volunteers until it was too late (better to have sent a caravan yesterday and hauled them all westward, but maybe she was shy about asking for help). Or nuts.
Any other advice we should give this person, before the cell phone system goes down?
Call local law enforcement and let them know her plan. They will force her to evacuate if it is necessary. Planning a mid-hurricane B&E is not an acceptable emergency plan.
Make sure she knows how to get into the attic fast and easy. Also make sure that any attic space she might retreat into is something she can get out QUICKLY if water gets even higher (like say wimpy screens/vents on each end of the house or something like that). A sledge hammer or axe up in there might be good. Something that floats once she escapes the attic is probably a good idea too. Also tell her a storm surge isnt just slowing rising water or a passing wave. Its A FUCKING fast moving WALL of very quickly rising water.
Damn damn stupid (but I am sure you know that already).
I’d call the cops, what else can you do? It sucks that she didn’t plan properly and all the animals are likely going to die, but are pets worth her dying over, too? No.
Worst case scenario, she stays in the house, you don’t call the cops, she dies, and you have horrible survivor’s guilt. Calling them is the ONLY way she might be forced to leave the house. Who even cares about the animals at this point?
She’s dead, and so are all her animals, unless you call the police to have her removed. I can almost guarantee it. Hell, the entire barrier island may disappear in the storm.
Tell her to gather the animals. The police aren’t monsters. They’ll probably help move them.
Tell her to build a huge boat and take two of each animal onboard with her. If the storm ends up being worse than predicted, she might be the one to repopulate the earth.
They aren’t monsters, but that doesn’t mean they’ll actually force her to leave against her will. “Mandatory” evacuation order doesn’t necessarily mean the authorities have the resources to go around forcibly rounding people up. Usually it’s a way of absolving emergency services of any legal responsibility to try and help people who refuse to evacutate, but change their minds once the storm starts.
Back when Mt St. Helens blew her top, we had an old codger that lived on the mountain. He had a lovely spot on Spirit Lake and just refused to leave. The authorities tried to get him to go, but he refused.
Yup, he, the house and everything went with the mountain. I hope it was instant for him.
At least send someone in after her animals. It’s her choice to risk her life and liberty with this scheme, but her animals can’t make an informed decision and shouldn’t be put in danger.
Then the question becomes whether to return them to her if she survives the storm…