Forced evacuations

[M.T. Pockets]

This is a tough call, as a firefighter I've been involved going door to door after a tornado and two floods. Our marching orders from the top were "go door to door to each house and get the people out of the area" and we did. Some folks snuck back in, some folks who didn't belong there in the first place snuck in, and the news media also snuck in. When your job is to "get everyone out of there !" all these folks look alike and how the heck do we know who belongs and who doesn't.

By refusing to leave, or sneaking back in, I can say that it did cause us to spend more time than we liked stepping over hot wires in the dark, with natural gas & propane leaking and with falling branches wading in rising water getting people out when we'd have been better off somewhere else, not to mention safer. I've been chewed out hard by a Homeowner we were trying to help in a flood and I've come to the conslusion some folks don't think straight in an emergency.

Some folks are mad that the government didn't get there soon enough, and now some are mad when they do come to try to help them. How do you win ?