I have a cousin who lives at the beach, and she won't leave if a hurricane is coming because

[Are_grits_groceries]

the damage done inland was much greater there in her world. It was all I could do not to gawk at her. She came down from Maryland after Hugo and saw the chaos. Yes, there was inland damage, but it was a ginormous hurricane that blew the hell out of the entire state.

Then she said that they only had to worry about ONE tree if a hurricane did hit. I was looking out into her backyard where there were approximately eleventy billion trees. I asked how she came to this conclusion. A hurricane had brushed the coast one year. She had determined from that which way the wind would blow and then checked her trees to see which ones would be trouble. I was thinking about how the wind will change directions, tornadoes that are spun off, and trees that are picked up and launched like missiles.

She had one more factoid for me. She had looked at a map and determined how high her area is from sea level. She doesn't live far from the shore, and it wasn't very high. I did tell her that Highway 17 was a road and not a wall. It parallels the coast.

There are a lot of places she could stay. Her mother is over ninety and in a nursing home. Her daughter had back surgery, and it went wrong. She has trouble moving. She won't bring them inland. We have tried to talk to her. However, she knows everything and won't listen. My mama refused to talk about it after a while because it pissed her off so much.

When I was leaving that day, I told her I had one request. Would she put me in their wills so that I could inherit whatever was left when they were all lost? Cold I know. She just laughed.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I understand your mama. I would feel that way too.

[BoWanZi]

2. LOL at your last line about being put in the will

I would have said/asked the same thing with an ignorant fool who insists on staying on a beach house during a hurricane.

[unc70]

8. NC barrier island stay-behinds are asked for their next-of-kin to be notified

As they are trying to get the last diehards off the islands when things are about to lock down and bridges close, the police asked each of those remaining for who should be notified as their next-of-kin. They also give the little reminder that they will be on their own during the storm and that noone will be able to "rescue" them during the storm.

When faced with that, only a few are still prepared to remain. After Hugo, Fran, and a few other hurricanes along the coast of the Carolinas, not many people are willing to take the risk. The number of recent storms along the Gulf Coast should have convinced everyone down there of the risks.

It seems each generation has to be reminded anew. There were the storms of the 1930's which hit the northeast really hard; then Hazel in NC, Camille on the Gulf, then ...

[hobbit709]

3. "Stupidity is the only universal capital crime"

"And sentence is carried out immediately with no hope of appeal"-Lazarus Long

sometimes this is the only solution.

[n2doc]

4. Reminder her of this:

http://www.click2houston.com/slideshow/news/17466546/detail.html

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. Gawd and everybody has tried to talk

to her about it. She has seen the damage on the teevee, but she won't listen. My Mama and others had seen hurricanes for decades. I guess my cousin thinks they have changed.

[JackintheGreen]

6. I do anthropological research in this area

and I'm not in the least surprised. I remember just after Katrina a man was narrating how he had begged his father to leave NOLA before the hurricane struck, but by god they'd said the same thing before Camille (1969) and he'd weathered that storm just fine. Needless to say, he was telling this story after his father's body had been recovered from the attic of his home.

People who live surrounded by risk use all sorts of cognitive tricks to fool themselves that "it" won't happen to them, or if it does there was nothing they could have done about it anyway (will of God, Fate, that sort of thing). It seems to be a basic urge to enable this kind of cognitive dissonance in the face of all common reason in order to get on with the quotidian. Typically, though, these measures are undertaken by people who don't feel like they have any choice in where they find themselves: deep-sea fishermen, Basque terrorists, Israeli settlers, etc.

I wish her well.

[Shell Beau]

7. I don't understand it myself.

AFter Katrina, by brother (a state trooper) went down to help (actually before it hit) but he recalls seeing dead bodies floating around. Senseless. I am not talking New Orleans either. This was on the MS coast, and many of these people had the ability to leave but chose not to.

[Dappleganger]

9. There's always people like this.

I'm sorry that she's your family member and that she's responsible for someone. Perhaps you could offer a place to stay to her daughter when the storms come?

BTW, we live in FL and I am always dumbfounded by the idiots who run to the beach to watch or surf the waves when a hurricane is coming.

[Are_grits_groceries]

11. A cousin and I discussed this with my Mama.

She has passed, but she made us promise that we would go get my aunt. I told her we would try, but not to count on anything. There have been some close calls, but it is just a matter of time.

[Dappleganger]

13. If your Mom asked...

then of course it's important to try. My Mom is gone too, I know what that's like. :(

Let's just hope that your life isn't put into danger in the process. If they have mandatory evacuations there will also be officials at her door as well.

[SheilaT]

10. People will also sometimes justify

that behavior by pointing out that others live where earthquakes or tornadoes happen. Those latter two come with little or no warning. The up side of living where hurricanes happen is that there's often several days' warning to get out. She's a fool and I hope she does mention you in her will.

[Walk away]

12. This must be what Darwin meant by "Natural Selection".

It's a fre country. I hope no one else gets hurt because of her.

[FLPanhandle]

14. Many people feel that way, until they end up sitting through a major hurricane

There really is no way to comprehend the power of a major hurricane. If she makes it through one, she'll know better for the next time.

[Yunomi]

15. I moved my parents inland

as far as Austin during Ike. I grew up on the Texas coast, and the stories of people who stayed to ride it out and didn't make it are numerous. I shed quite a few tears over the lost folks on Bolivar Penisula, along with habitat destruction.