Nearly 2,000 brought to safety in Texas after Ike
Monday, September 15th, 2008
It would have been a lot easier for the rescuers and people had evacuated when they were told to.
Rescuers said they had saved nearly 2,000 people from waterlogged streets and splintered houses by Sunday afternoon. Many had ignored evacuation orders and tried to ride out the storm.
Michael Geml has braved other storms in his bayfront neighborhood in Galveston, where he’s lived for 25 years, though none quite like Ike. The 51-year-old stayed in the third-story Jacuzzi of a neighbor’s house, directly on the bay, with family pets as waves crashed across the landscape. But amid the havoc, Geml asked anyone who would listen — even his rescuers — for an odd commodity: cat litter for his spooked feline.
“I’ll never stay again,” Geml said. “I don’t care what the weatherman says — a Category 1, a Category 2. I thought I was going to die.”
This is America and you have every right to stay in your home if you want. However, if it is a mandatory evacuation and you refuse to leave, then the rescuers should not have to come get you. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. Of course, we will never do this because we are too compassionate to leave stupid people to die.
