Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Court Order from
the County Judge?
Some years ago, after one of our many hurricanes, a young
woman complained to a local television reporter that she did not have any food
or water in the house, or any milk for her baby. She concluded, in a burst of
outrage, “They should have been better prepared!”
Whoever the “they” might have been, it hadn’t occurred to
this adult that she bore any responsibility for the health and safety of her
child and herself.
Similarly, after last week’s Hurricane Ian, some few
residents of Florida are complaining that the “they” had not ordered an
evacuation in a timely fashion.
One supposes that a rough equivalent would be residents of
Montana sobbing to PBS that the state government hadn’t warned anyone that
Montana gets lots of snow.
For weeks the weather services watched this storm, quite
accurately predicted its landing in Florida, and warned and warned and warned. Among
the many warnings was the well-known reality that hurricanes can shift
positions and thus pin-pointing a landing before it happens is impossible. We
must always remember the cone of uncertainty.
I’m not going Darwinian here when I say that we adults are responsible
for our own behavior, and with the big-boy / big-girl pants come big-boy /
big-girl responsibilities. Public safety
is a significant part of the duties of government, but it is not the sheriff’s
job to come around each evening and remind me to lock my doors. The governor is
not mandated to remind me to see my excellent nurse practitioner every six
months. The several fire departments should not need to tell me not to burn litter
with this autumn drought desiccating all the grass, weeds, and brush. The
Department of Public Safety should not have to ticket anyone for not safety-seating
the rug-rat.
This past Sunday evening the weather dude on the telescreen
advised the audience of a “disturbance” out in the middle of the Atlantic that might
develop through the levels of danger and which might enter the Gulf of
Mexico in two weeks. As of the publication of this fine newspaper, that’ll be
ten days.
That “might” and our adult experience with rough weather
constitute the warning. Yes, we have been warned. Two Sunday evenings from now
we will probably be sitting in the front yard enjoying the cool autumn air, but
we might – might – be suffering the stings and buffetings of a
hurricane.
We know these things, and so as we go about our daily
endeavors this week we add to our pantries and shelves another case of bottled
water, another few cans of stew or Spam, some more crackers, some condensed
milk and other necessaries for the babies, and so on. We top off the gas tanks
in the cars and add a few jerricans for the generator if we have one. We make
some plans, we mark a map, we ask someone without resources if he or she will
need a lift out, we talk to people, and we’re ready to go when we make that
decision for ourselves.
Remember – no one needs a court order from the county judge
to come in out of the rain.
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