Grrr….

Grumpy old man opinion here. TL:DR You live in the path of a hurricane/flood, that’s YOUR problem, not mine.

It’s hurricane season, and the BS is off with a roar…

Dorian has come through the Caribbean like a huge broom, sweeping devastation left in its path. You need to remember the highest point in the Abacos and Bahamas is around 40 feet above sea level, but most of the inhabitants live around 5 feet about sea level. The destruction was/is horrendous, and the loss of life will never be accurately counted, but I’d guess well over 200.

BUT, even while the news programs play the sob stories, and talk about the damage, tears in their eyes, as the ‘victims’  stand there in front of the camera, stained wife-beater T-shirt proudly displayed, or torn dress in tatters, tears in their eyes wondering how such a thing could happen. And they beg for help. And more help, and the chilluns. The starving chilluns, but you never see those children on TV, because they either don’t belong to the people, or are somewhere else. And don’t get me started on the looters…

You ever notice you never see this kind of coverage out of Guam, Taiwan, Okinawa, or Japan? Those of you who have been there know why. They don’t have ‘pretty’ buildings and houses. They have concrete buildings and homes built to withstand both typhoons AND earthquakes. They’re ugly. They have steel shutters. They have emergency supplies in place. They KNOW they are on their own until after the emergency passes… They deal with it. And the military/LEO’s/Fire/Rescue don’t go rescue stupid people in the middle of the storms either…

But what many forget is the Bahamas is a sovereign country, tied to England, NOT a part of the USA. If they really want help, go to the drug lords that have used the Bahamas for generations as a drug haven and stop on the way to the US for untold billions of dollars of drugs. Or go to those billionaires with homes there, or England. WE don’t owe them anything other than human kindness. The military will fly in supplies, out of US stocks, burning hundreds of flight hours on airframes already over timed, and overdue for maintenance, because that is what our military does without reimbursement, ever…

Puerto Rico IS a US territory, and now, a year later, their infrastructure is STILL in tatters because of the inherent corruption there, and millions of dollars in aid has ‘disappeared’… Probably into some politician’s pocket. But, WE are to blame, because we didn’t do everything for them.

Everyone knows there are hurricanes, they happen every year, and people that lived through them, will turn right around and go back to that area and rebuild. Another hurricane, and then the Governor declares the place an emergency, FEMA swoops in and hands out free goodies, and everybody gets free stuff.  Except it’s not free…

You know who pays for all this free stuff and rebuilding going on in known flood areas and hurricane alleys?  WE do. We cough up in taxpayer dollars and increased insurance premiums for these idiots who get reimbursed time after time. Just like the towns and places that flood on the Mississippi and other rivers every year, and go right back and rebuild IN THE SAME SPOT. WE PAY THE PRICE.

Then they bitch about how long it takes to get the money, how little money they got, yada, yada, yada. It’s probably a good thing I’m not in charge, because I would pay off ONCE, if you go back, any further losses are on you.

Same with the idjits that refuse to leave in the path of (insert disaster here), then scream for rescue, putting first responders, LEOs, military, et al in harm’s way trying to save their dumb asses. I would tell them, “We’ll be there when it is safe for the responders to come to your location. Not before. Until then, you’re on your own. You made your bed, enjoy laying in it.”

The other thing that pisses me off is the BS from the left that ‘hurricanes are man caused disasters’!  Really? Do you people NOT have a grip on reality? Do you not understand history, and documentation? Or is it that since you haven’t see it with your own lying eyes, then you get to decide what is true? Trying to view EVERYTHING through the lens of politics is not only stupid, it’s going to get people killed. But I don’t think they care. They will be safe in their guarded enclaves, well away from the peons.

I know this isn’t politically correct, but I’ve never claimed to be. I’ve flown Hurrivacs, Medivacs, and hundreds of hours of searches over the years, in addition to riding out a couple of typhoons because we were deployed there. Never once gotten a word of thanks from any of the people, other than our own bosses. Same for folks I’ve talked to that flew in supplies and had boots on the ground. No thanks, just complaints, other than one village above Fukushima that was VERY appreciative of HSM-51’s support. I did over 20 years in the Navy, and I damn sure don’t live on a coast. I know better. Yes, I live at the start of tornado alley, and I pay over $2000/yr for that insurance, I PAY IT, not anybody else.

As far as I’m concerned, if you choose to live in the path of a hurricane/flood, that’s YOUR problem, not mine. Especially if you aren’t prepared, aren’t willing to leave if told, and especially if you put people in harm’s way to rescue you.

Kicking the soapbox back in the corner.

Comments

Grrr…. — 33 Comments

  1. “Do you people NOT have a grip on reality? Do you not understand history, and documentation?”

    No, they do not. Leftism is, at its root, the denial of reality.

    “Or is it that since you haven’t see it with your own lying eyes, then you get to decide what is true?”

    Not even then. None so blind as those who will not see.

  2. r r r ROARRRReh!
    My wife gets tired of it when I rant/roar in front of the TV. But it does help, let it out and move on to better places/channels

  3. Thank you for this. I concur, as you probably have guessed.

  4. Brings to mind hurricane Allen back in ’80. A Cat 5 storm in the Gulf that had Corpus Christi boresighted for several days. The TRAWING 4 Commodore mandated that all NAS CC personnel would bring their families aboard NAS to ride out the storm. YGTBSM! NAS CC is about 19 feet above mean sea level. No way was I going to put my family there during a Cat 5 storm. I told my people what the Commodore said and what I was going to do. I would put my wife and kids on the road to family in Dallas at 7 PM that evening and if it looked like CC was still in Allen’s sights at midnight I would hit the road. I hit the road at midnight with the dog and headed to Dallas. Traffic wasn’t that bad and I made good time. As it turned out the storm stalled for a day or so about 200 miles east of CC and then headed due west for the Brownsville area, sparing CC a direct hit. Talking to a neighbor who was a VT OpsO, was told the senior man in his squadron during all this was a LtJG.

    Ya pays yer money and takes yer chances, no?

  5. > Same for folks I’ve talked to that flew in supplies and had boots on the ground. No thanks, just complaints,

    My brother was part of AFSOC, flying out of Hurlburt Field in Florida. He got sent on one of the relief missions to Kenya in the early oughts.

    He and his crew were humping cargo out of a C-5 when they got interrupted by some Kenyans. The President of Kenya, his aides, and some cabinet members, who had bypassed a ceremony laid out by the mucky-mucks, walked out onto the flight line, and started shaking hands and thanking the guys who were actually doing the work, not the swivel-chair officers in charge of it. The Prez gave the cargo guys signed certificates of appreciation and Kenyan flags as mementos.

    Of course, it was the *only* time he got thanked… a couple of places, they had people taking potshots at them, which he figured was pretty stupid. Even the dumbest native should have been smart enough to figure it would be better to let the USAF unload the airplane first, *then* shoot at them…

  6. Even when I was a kid back in high school and learning about the world, I would wonder why, as in the case of Mississippi river delta, people would live in a place where they were flooded every year. It didn’t make sense to me then and it still doesn’t. Same with New Orleans. A city built below the water line? Go figure.

    In any case, everyone has a scam going.

    But many thanks to you and your brothers/sisters in the relief efforts over the years. People just expect “gummint” to be there and you are the tools to do the work they expect. And hey, that’s what you get paid for, isn’t it? That kind of attitude is what keeps people from making responsible decisions. They just keep sucking on the people’s teat.

  7. All- Thanks. I’ll probably lose some readers, but I, for one, am sick and tired of the phone calls begging for donations, etc. Especially when little, if any monies ever actually get to the field.

    Posted from my iPhone.

  8. Why would you lose readers? So far, all the readers who have commented here have seemed to have graduated to the ‘adult’ phase of life, unlike those on more, um, bedwetting blogs. It’s your porch, you can yell at the dogs anyway you want.

    As to hurricane survival, people who haven’t reinforced and upgraded their structures to the new standards (Florida standards after Hurricane Andrew are a good start) are in the same boat as the people in Tornado Alley who haven’t upgraded to current wind standards and who don’t have a dedicated shelter. To live in an unsecured building that’s not upgraded to current standards in any potential disaster zone is crazy.

    Like, well, Louisiana. A lot of people who got flooded out during Katrina who didn’t live in New Orleans rebuilt their houses to the new standard of 11′ above normal flood levels (covering the ground.) So, in the sticks, Bubba and Bubbette have a house in the air. Which has saved them big-time over and over since 2005.

    But in New Orleans? Why in the name of God’s little green apples didn’t the Army Corps of Engineers just use the 9th Ward and it’s levee walls as a giant land fill for dredging the shipping channels and as a place to dispose of all the trash. Move any good houses, level everything else, set it all on fire, level again, pump all the sand and dirt and rocks you want, level it, rebuild above sea level for once. I actually saw the ACE had proposed this, and it got shot down. Why? If your city is sinking, lift up everything and fill underneath, right?

    And as to the towns along the Mississippi, especially up north, many of them did move to the bluffs along the river, especially during the Reagan and Bush I era. The following administration shut that down by granting rebuilding money for only at the previous location, if you wanted to rebuild above the flood plain you had to pay for all of it yourself (if you had gov insurance) so yet another busy-body Democrat policy that doesn’t make sense screws us all up.

    I know, and have family, on the barrier islands south of Cape Canaveral. All have upgraded to the modern standards, and have taken as much measures as they can to protect their properties. So far they’ve all been fortunate, so far.

  9. We’re not in the path of most hurricanes, but we did have a limb that had been stuck in the tree for about a year fall to the ground, thank you Dorian. But did FEMA show up to help haul it off???? NOOOO! The price I have to pay for being American born white privileged tax payer.

  10. I was living on the Tar River in NC when hurricane Floyd came through and dropped 22″ of rain on us in 18 hours. My house (a rental thank goodness) had been there for 50 years and never had flooded. Had no reason to think that this time would be different. Left with the cats that night and stayed in a hotel just in case one of the pecan trees fell on the house. I didn’t want to be there for that. The next morning there was 6 FEET of water in the house. Historic rain leads to historic floods, welcome to MY house said Mother Nature. Fortunately, I was smart enough to save the cars and the cats. Still had transportation and still had a job that didn’t flood. Lived in a hotel for 3 months. Got an SBA loan to replace all of the belongings that could be replaced. Bought a house in a place high enough to be out of the 1000 year flood plain. Paid the SBA loan off early.

    Never took a dime of government money that I was eligible for. I was able bodied and still working, and had family and friends helping me out. Other people needed the help more than I did, and it just didn’t seem right since I was still working and had a place to stay.

    In the aftermath, I saw all of my belongings piled in a heap in the front yard, so the front end loaders could pick it up and put it in dumptrucks to take to the landfill. There is nothing like seeing your life’s work and memories sitting in the front yard waiting to be hauled off. So, what boggles my mind, is the sheer number of people who rebuild in the same spot WITHOUT doing anything to mitigate the chances of that happening to them again. WHY, on God’s good earth, would you take a chance on having to go through that again?!!

    I know there is no place one can move to in this country that isn’t affected by natural disaster of some sort. But, there are tons of things that can be done to mitigate their effects. Why some people don’t take steps to protect themselves is beyond me. Ok, I’m rambling now, so I’ll shut up. But NFO is correct.

  11. CP- Yep, you, like me, are ex-Navy. We learned.

    N91- Yeah, agreed! And smart move, literally, on your part. Goods can be replaced, kinda hard to replace you. You mitigated the issues, but many don’t/won’t.

  12. Dad was Corps of Engineer IG for the Vicksburg District.
    Vicksburg to The River’s mouth.
    He’d break my legs if I said “I’m moving to New Orleans.”
    Hurricane Agnes … well, she almost killed the Chesapeake Bay. Humans don’t even figure in the equation.
    Was over 40 miles from Andrew’s eye. Close enough! Never gonna live on a flood plain.

  13. I also agree with every single thing you had to say. And also, thank you for your years of service. I have a son in the U.S. Navy, currently deployed in the Gulf of Oman, with the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln carrier group. He is on the U.S.S. Leyte Gulf, a Ticonderoga class cruiser. He was supposed to get out of the Navy after 6 years in April, but extended until October so he could deploy with his ship. He is a sonar tech, but also spends a lot of time with security. They were in port at Oman the when I checked a couple of days ago. But they have been keeping an eye on Iran, who has been messing with them daily.
    Best wishes and have a great fall season.

  14. I’m just glad the Navy is backing away from the war on weather Obama initiated.
    Maybe now we can reach a detente with weather and it won’t attack us so viciously.

  15. Rick- Thanks!

    Stretch- Smart man. 😀

    pigpen- Thanks, please tell your son thanks for carrying on the tradition! And the GOO is no fun. If they get in to Bahrain, Typhoon is a good Thai restaurant in the Souk.

    Ed- ROTF…

    Jack- Thanks!

  16. Hey Old NFO;

    Excellent rant, I can see the smoke off your keyboard….Excellent

  17. Today went to an ultra liberal enclave in Puget Sound. Vintage motorcycle show, whata ya gonna do?

    Saw a yard sign, in carefully fabbed stainless steel letters over cor-ten rusty steel background.

    “Objective Reality Exists”.

    Apparently someone got tired of the PC idiocy. Made me smile.

  18. Interesting to compare the way the Bahamians are handling the situation to the way our friends in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are (and hey did get hammered, but good). The former, cry and beg for the cameras. The latter? pick up your socks and get on with it. Hmm…

  19. Bob- Thanks… sigh…

    Raven- LOVE It!

    Ian- They probably walked out and went, Tad windy, Eh?” And got on with daily life. Those folks are HARDY…

  20. Crap….I forgot…..
    Thank you for your service Sir!

  21. Only thing I disagree with you about is the “pretty buildings” comment. The houses I’ve seen in the Bahamas were made out of concrete block. Can’t say they had steel shutters though. The Grand Bahama island has a high point of 23′ feet if memory servers, but like you said, most of it is only 5 feet. I don’t think it really matters how well you’ve built your house if it gets swamped during a storm surge.

  22. Jack- Thanks!

    LCB- You do have a point. However the difference between concrete block and solid concrete are significantly different. And water is NOT compressible… sigh

  23. I am disappointed that Dorian didn’t swing by Martha’s Vineyard
    to welcome the Obamas.

  24. Agree with Ian about the way different cultures handle things – my wife deployed to Fukishima after the tsunami and was amazed at how orderly and understanding the Japanese people were. As an example, she saw very long lines of folks waiting to get some supplies and food/water from relief trucks. When the trucks ran out of stuff, there were still lots of folks in line. But instead of going all riot-y, they just thanked the folks for coming anyway and said they’d wait until the next group of trucks came… She also said that the streets were cleared of debris very quickly, even though the blocks of what used to be houses were just mounds of debris. That then contrasted with the cultures who feel they should be taken care of by some other group of folks.

  25. Sam- LOL

    Tom- Yep, what I saw over there was NOT panic buying. People were only buying what they needed of the bottled water, toilet paper, etc. No case lots, no pushing/shoving. Just very orderly.

  26. When we were watching the pre-hurricane coverage, that was a topic of conversation…that if we ever moved to hurricane territory, (not likely) the first thing we would do was buy plywood and cut them to fit the openings. Way before we would need them. That way, when we would need them, they would be ready to go.

    But I have observed there are 2 kinds of folks. Folks who prepare and plan ahead, based on reality, history, and facts. And folks who just coast along then panic at the last minute, and are upset because there are no generators or cell service or food or water…

    I have no control over anyone else but me. But I agree that it frosts me when everyone else expects us to pick up the tab over and over again. I say pay it once, then, if you can’t learn from experience, you are on the hook for your own stupid choices.

  27. Late here but dittos to all the above.
    I’ll just add, it’s way past time to send Puerto Rico off on its own.

  28. My only caveat would be that everywhere and anywhere can have a disaster. Hurricanes hit and bring flooding far inland. Tornadoes are capricious, striking almost anywhere, although they are more common in the Midwest. Earthquakes in Alaska and California. Volcanoes in Hawaii and Washington State. Tsunami along the coastlines. Flooding along the Mississippi.

    And everywhere, people pick up and rebuild. My area is still recovering from a flood that happened in 1999. No possible way to predict it, no historical evidence it was going to happen. Where would you expect all these to people to move where they would be safe from a disaster?