Are you affected by Hurricane Ike?

I agree 100%. I am the mother of two first responders and I sure don't want their lives put at risk because some were too incrediably stupid to follow instructions and thought they knew better. If you are told to get out - get out! No 911, no rescues! If, when all this is over, you're still alive and need to be rescued, you get the bill. The cost of this storm will be huge for taxpayers all over the country, we should not have to pay extra for dummies. You're right, reducing the bottom of the gene pool may not be such a bad idea.

Jim - I do agree with you in theory. (Minus the let them drown part;). I am getting so disgusted with watching and reading time after time about people would are in MANDATORY evacuation areas and decide to stay. I think that anyone who is in an "MANDATORY" evacuation area that does NOT leave, should be billed for whatever rescue service has to respond to rescue their sorry asses. I think there should be a fine for staying as well. People need to stop being so arrogant and learn what the word MANDATORY means and stop putting our rescue men and women in danger.

I totally agree with this comment. If you are ordered to get out and you refuse, then you should take full responsibility for your actions and deal with it. Stop expecting good, honest people to risk their lives to save yours when you didn't follow mandatory evacuation orders. I think these people should pay the costs it takes to rescue them. I am tired of my hard-earned tax money going to help ignorant people who refuse to cooperate or listen.

agreed! husbands, brothers, friends in the coast guard are called to help people who were warned in advance to evacuate but deliberately stayed. how can it be ok to put those people in harm's way for their stupidity?! thank god my husband was not one of those brave coasties, but it's the principle. it could have been him and i feel for all those family members of those that did go. they're having to save idiots that value their material possessions more than their own lives. the coast guard and all other rescue personnel hold a special place in my heart for all the good they do. i hope these rescued people are VERY grateful.

Thank you for your comments. These people who stayed should be held responsible. It is a democracy, but don't put responders in unnecessary jeopardy because you are in defiance of a warning. Deal with it yourself.

no we should all be completely reliant on our gov. and depend on them for everything we need.we should depend on them to hold our hands and ensure our safety.

my father-in-law was the first biloxi police officer to give his life in the line of duty.EOW 11/09/1970. if he were alive today he would have gladly gone in to save those that didn't evacuate. just as he did after Camille.it was what he lived for.and i for one am proud of him.

the comments some of yall are leaving are so sad.maybe your family members shouldn't be first responders.find another job!

after a hurricane your victimized by looters,and criminals.and now yall are stating indirectly that we should be victimized by the first responders as well.

if you are not prepared for the aftermath of a hurricane,even a minimal one like IKE,then by all means, get out. but if you are prepared then by all means stay.because you wont be allowed back in till "they"decide you can.

how many of you have faced weeks of anxiety waiting to find out if everything you have is gone our safe?....i bet not many

this country is all about entitlement not self-reliance like it should be.

i didn't leave for any storm here on the Ms gulf coast from CAMILLE to KATRINA nor did i need any assistance from your family members. i faced threats from both criminals and cops.

some of the comments left here disgrace to the memory and the honor that my father-in-law died for.

as far as "certain death"....that didn't seem to happen...did it?

JG, that is a great idea! There should be a bill passed in Congress that if there is a Mandatory Evacuation and you stay, you pay for your own rescue. It makes sense really. There has GOT to be a way to force people to save their own ***.

I agree with you all. Why should people put themselves in harm's way to rescue those morons who refused to evacuate? They were told of the risk of IMMINENT DEATH if they stayed. I feel sorry for the kids, they had no choice, but the parents... shame on them.
I hope next time they'll be told that there will be nobody coming to their rescue... that if they choose to stay it will be at their own risk.

I agree, to a point as well. I believe that people who choose to ignore mandatory evacuation orders should not then expect people to risk their lives to save them later. I don't believe that anyone deserves to die. But I also think that these people were told, if you stay, you are risking your lives.

The thing that frustrates me most, is that people choose to keep their children in such an unsafe situation. I believe those people should be charged with child endangerment. If adults choose to stay in such a situation, that is their choice. But anyone who keeps a child in such a situation is choosing to risk their child's life. That is just plain wrong, and should be considered criminal.

I also agree with those who say that those who stay should be charged for the services that they recieve , be it rescue, or food, water, etc. And they should be fined for ignoring the orders to evacuate.

An evacuation is only really mandatory if there are real legal consequences if it is ignored. Otherwise, it's really just a strong suggestion.

The officals in Texas DID tell them before the hit that they would be on their own if they stayed. I would also add that any minor children who stayed because their parents are STUPID.... should be charged with child neglect or abuse.

If you lived on the Texas coast & were under the mandatory evac order, ya should have gotten out when the orders went out! My husband is going to be heading down there as part of the support team for the Austin Fire Dept units, who are going down to help recuse those dumb sh...s who stayed thru Ike or even waited until they saw the waters of the Gulf lapping at their front doors & then started hollerin' for help. Why should my hard earned tax monies pay to save someone who didn't want to be saved before the storm?? If they lived thru the storm & had to be plucked to safety from the danger zone when the calm arrives, hand them a bill for services as they're walking out the door from the shelter back to their homes or where ever they're headin' to!!
The TV stations here in Austin keep saying that they're needing volunteers to help out at the various shelters around town. I'll volunteer! Volunteer to help write up the invoices for rescue, shelter, & food provided on MY dime!! People who stay during a major storm when told to get out really make me believe that maybe Darwin was right.... natural selection.

I can't believe how incredibly stupid some people are! My brother abd his family live on Jamaica beach on Galveston Island. He took the girls and bugged out. His wife unfortunately works in the hospital and had to stay until all the patients were evacuated. She was not done until 11 pm the night before Ike hit. She was exhausted, took a nap for a few hours and met up with some other nurses to head for Dallas to be with their families. The water was too high so they went to New Orleans to wait out the storm.

I think that the morons who stayed behind should be sentenced to 1000 hours of community service for their stupidity. They get to roll their sleeves up and help clean up the island, not their property but others! I certainly hope these people don't get paid for their pictures or their storiea of sheer stupidity!

Lady J

You put oil rigs WHERE THE OIL IS!!!!

Your "cradle to the grave" sense of entitlement and "gimme-ism" obviously doesn't include the concept of reading well: I said that ONLY people who had intentionally defied mandatory evacuation orders should be held liable for any harm which befell emergency service workers as a result of the non-evacuees' actions, NOT those ordered to "shelter in place (as was most of Houston)," those whose jobs required staying (emergency services, utility workers, etc.). Have you not seen this morning's headlines: "Survivors beg for help as Ike ravages Texas: Major search-and-rescue operation looms after 250,000 refuse to flee (MSNBC)?" What part of "on your own" do you fail to understand? By the way, your own inability to read, your false presumptions (by any standard, I would qualify as one of the "poor"), convoluted reasoning, and your phallic imagery in your feeble attempt to insult me all suggest that YOU have far greater issues to deal with than the karma you see headed my way...

Hey socialist Obama lover, JoeyfromCali, this is about Ike, not your bleeding heart liberal views

I am a bleeding heart liberal too, but that doesn't mean I am in favor of people being stupid. Anyone that defies a MANDATORY evacuation order should be left on their own. We should help everyone else first. Idiots get help last, if they get help at all.
It is simply wrong to endanger the brave people of our emergency services and military to rescue such idiots. They were amply warned. "PERSONS NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY HOMES WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH"

It doesn't get much clearer than that.

I am not really fond of stoopid people, but there are JUST SO MANY of them apparently. And I'm not naming names.

Anyway, I can only hope that we all learn valuable lessons!

I'll bet you start hearing those words, "building codes" soon in the Texas Gulf region.

We had to learn the hard way also here in Florida over the last 15 years. From seeing even a few photos of destruction, you can tell they had "0" codes, or enforcement. Oh yes, and wait until your insurance Co. gets done with you. I wont even start there. We just got our roof replaced, to code, from Wilma, Oct. 2005. Yes we thought we were in "Good Hands" like many others.

Welcome to the club Texas

Good point, Jack, especially from someone who's "been there, done that!" In fact, I've often wondered about the very points you raise. It seems that in the recent past, there's been a rash of incidents involving mountain climbers and hikers who decide to climb mountains in the Northwest, regardless of the weather. Then, lost or unable to continue, they scream for help as have snowmobilers and snowboarders. The tally for these "rescues" is incredible; one hour's worth of helicopter time alone would all but send me into bankruptcy. My question: as a SCUBA diver, it is incumbent upon me to have adequate dive insurance to cover any incident which might arise, including shipping my body home. I would not dive without insurance because hyperbaric chambers ain't cheap--unless one is comparing them to helicopter time! Why do these other activities not have similar insurance, or, do they, and people simply ignore the need for it? By the way, we all thank you for your service of the past 27 years (regardless of how galling it may have been at times).

I have a friend that lives in Beaumont whom evacuated last time her her daughter and grandson were coming back to chi town last mandatory evac and it cost her a good weeks pay in gas food and hotel she was told by her boss on Monday night after 14 hours of driving looking for a hotel finally finding a hotel to be at the bank Tuesday she did not make it back til Wednesday so she decided to wait this one out but was prepared as good as she could be and I still can not get a hold of her and her son his family live by baton rouge and insurance companies are even fighting claims from a prior storm and her old man is in La. working for a construction co. that is still working on damage from Katrina so you have to realize all different people have their reasons for staying behind remember that this other hurricane evacuation was only a couple of weeks ago it might have been easier if the government gave at least a couple hundred to each family that had a mandatory evac at least to help with gas and food and I believe that each hotel in surrounding areas should comp a night a two for families that have to evac or even people like Hilton's etc step in its not like taking a small loss for life and helping people in need should be that great of a loss when their daughter Paris seems to always love to flaunt how much she is worth common her dog wears a diamond collar and their are millions of people whom live beyond what is necessary

The center is passing through Conroe, Texas now. My sister-in-law's home in the woods just out of town has a few broken branches from the first half. Power went out some time after 4 am.

Who is dumber: The fisherman with the pregnant 17 year old white trash daughter who refused to evacuate or "Joey from Cali."?

hmmm, close call on that one

That is a tough call. I'm going with fisherman/daddy.

Peach,

If the "mindset" of homeowners wishing to protect what they and their families have worked hard to achieve is right-wing, then, obviously, the looters who wish to take it away from them at little or no cost to themselves fall into the opposite camp of the left-wing liberal with a "mindset" of "oursoursours!" Easy to see which camp you fall into...

Having little or no faith in government myself, I have no problem with people defying a "mandatory evacuation" notice. However, I have a huge problem with those same people then expecting, even DEMANDING, rescue from the same government entity which issued the notice, thereby endangering emergency service workers whose aid they forfeited when they chose not to evacuate. Choosing to go it on your own means exactly that.

For someone who admits that he is in uniform solely for a paycheck, your tone is more than a bit cynical. After all, you have just described yourself as a mercenary. What the hell did you think you would be doing? Painting rocks along the colonel's driveway? I have a son much, much younger than you who is wrapping up his second tour in your part of the world, and I would wager that he has seen much more combat than you have. However, he keeps his views, political or otherwise, largely to himself as opposed to broadcasting them over the Internet. I sincerely hope that you are not in any type of leadership position, but I think that's a given considering what you've had to say. What's your MOS? Clerk 'n jerk of some sort (probably supply), I'll bet. As for the war in Iraq, we may agree on more than you suppose, but this is not the venue in which to discuss it. I wish you safety, but little else...