Adults who want to ride it out- whatever. That’s your prerogative and if you want to die of drowning or hypothermia, so be it.
It’s the KIDS that get to me. Kids don’t have a choice in the matter and are paying for their parents’ ignorance.
(Yes, I recognize that many people simply can’t get out- that’s different from choosing not to.)
A woman interviewed on MSNBC said they’re staying because there’s “strength in numbers.” :-??
Idiotic, magical thinking.
When Ike was approaching Texas, they interviewed people who lived very near the coast who said they weren’t leaving. Many of them were very cavalier, playfully cavorting in the water as it began to churn. I don’t know if any of the people who were washed out to sea were among those interviewed, but it was so sad and surreal to look at some of the neighborhoods where pretty much every single house was GONE. I think there may still be a fair amount of people who were never accounted for.
The best one was a blond surfer…she said as a surfer she wanted to see the surge, and she would make the decision to leave when they close the bridge. Ummm, how is she going to leave when the bridge is closed. Her little shack of house was water front. She said she well prepared because she had all her valuables in plastic containers.
@alwaysamom I agree. I could absolutely not leave my pet behind. I really don’t know what I’d do. It’s heartbreaking all the way around.
They were interviewing a pet shop owner earlier who elected to stay. He brought all of the animals from his store to his house where he thought they’d be safer and is riding it out with them.
Many families in the area have sent most of their family members to evacuate (women and children) but many are concerned with looting, pets and live stock. I can get that, crazy surfers on a barrier island, not so much… I’ve personally been through many hurricanes and can understand both wanting to be safe and wanting to protect your pets/live stock/livelihood.
And these four legged residents are staying put - not because they want to, but because they can’t move. 
https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/09/13/health/florence-dogs-and-cats-not-evacuating/index.html
Goskid 2 is staying in Chapel Hill…which forecast now has “only” 3-5 inches of rain. But flash flood watch issued from now until SUNDAY night! We had initially urged him to go to cousin in Charlotte…but now looks like they will be more inundated with rain than CH.
About 50% of the grad students at UNC elected to stay. Praying they all made the right choice.
Also have SIL & BIL outside of Myrtle Beach who have opted to stay. Sigh.
Will be a long couple of days…
First responders have had to risk their lives to rescue 150-200 people in New Bern, NC already and they estimate that there are another 150-200 to be rescued.
This story made me feel a lot better this morning.
A lot of VA based rescues and shelters were doing everything they could to make room for N.C. animals facing almost certain death. Horrible situation to be in when you don’t have the resources to help yourself. “Pet friendly” lodgings usually don’t mean we welcome Pitties.
The problem is that those same people expect that they will be rescued, thus putting other people’s lives at risk. Already this morning lots of rescues and it’s hardly started.
I took in my sister, husband and 2 daughters, 2 dogs and 3 cats. They all live in Wilmington. The mayor said power could be out for 10 days! Yikes. They’re fine here with me, and we’re all getting along fine. They made us all dinner last night. How it looks if they’re still here a week from now, I’m not sure. It kills me to hear about people in New Bern for example who didn’t evacuate and then needed to send in people to rescue them off roofs.
We’re in MD on the water and it’s been windy and rainy here all day. Our water is for sure way higher than normal.
It’s just not as black and white with lots of these weather events as some people think (maybe some people who never have been faced with potential evacuation issues). It can be very complicated, stressful. Certainly wealthy people are going to have more options. And in some situations it is more obvious than others that you should go (Ocracoke is used to that), barrier islands under direct threat. It is just complicated and the potential threats can go on for days, in many different areas/states.
So sad to see the damage in New Bern, NC. Such a lovely town. All the best to those in NC
and those still going through this as it still resolves. People are flooding many places that never flooded before.
It’s difficult to know what to do. My daughter evacuated twice while she was in college. The first time she went inland to Orlando, and the weather was worse there than at her college on the coast. The second time she went to NJ, by air, and of course that was all a mess too. And her house was fine They thought about driving to NJ, but that would have been a disaster because the worse flooding was on I-95 and it would have taken them weeks to get back to school.
The flooding in NC is worse inland than on the coast. The rivers are flooding.
I have a friend on HHI and they are prepared to leave but hoping not to. They have a dog and a cat, and two cars but friend is currently unable to drive because of a broken leg so they have to take the old junker car and leave the expensive sports car. They suffered some damage last year and lost power (were evacuated for a week), so don’t want to leave again.
Decision making was really tough last week. First we got a hotel room in Raleigh, then an Airbnb in South Carolina, then settled into, you guessed it, Raleigh.
Air BNB has an option set up for people to list their homes/rooms for free to evacuees. That is a very generous gesture by the homeowners.
Looking at the predicted rainfall: a lot more rain is forecast. A lot. Ivanhoe, for example, is predicted to get another 20 to 30 inches of rain through Monday. When predicted weekend rain can be reasonably expressed in feet, that is a bad thing.
Taking out a slow to do his business puppy during a hurricane/tropical storm is NOT fun!
Did anyone see the storm surge graphic that the weather channel put up? For someone like me that doesn’t live where it floods more than a few inches, it was quite eye-opening. And a really cool demonstration of new technology.
https://www.wired.com/story/weather-channel-hurricane-florence-storm-surge-graphic/
Watching the tsunami that hit Japan a few years back convinced us to drive to higher ground when they told us we MIGHT have a tsunami as well. Much of our state is st sea level. That storm surge graphic is pretty powerful! They should have it shown on all channels when evacuation orders are issued AND provide buses for folks who have no operating vehicles or gas.
I saw on TV a woman showed what it looked like outside of her home, it was just water. She said it was terrifying hearing the wind and wave pounding on her house over night. They decided to stay because it took them weeks to get back to their home from the last hurricane. She said she would never stay again.