*WARNING: Time makes some of the information pertaining to hurricane category and subsequent expected destruction non-factual. This article was written before Hurricane Milton made landfall, therefore some information may now be considered inaccurate. This does not change the overall message of the article.*
If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die.
Mayor Jane Castor
I sit in my campus library at 11:28 a.m. on a Wednesday in St. Bonaventure, New York, 1,351 miles away from Tampa, Florida.
St. Bonaventure University sits less than 10 minutes away from Olean, New York, where the mayor, William J. Aiello stated on October 8 that he plans to assemble a Homelessness Taskforce to re-establish community and help those experiencing homelessness and those who have been affected by homelessness. 1,351 miles away, a twenty-hour drive or a five-hour flight, the mayor of Tampa Jane Castor begged the almost 400,000 residents of Tampa, Florida, her constituents, to leave their houses, their state, their home, on live television. At the time, she believed there would be a 10-to-12-foot storm surge, which she emphasized will be devastating.
The storm surge is now expected to peak at 15 feet. Think submerged houses, mass devastation and catastrophic loss of human life. Hurricane Milton is expected to be the most severe storm to hit Tampa in over a hundred years.
Perhaps it is not the hurricane itself that is most distressing, but rather the immense damage that is guaranteed to occur as a result. People will lose family members, friends, pets, homes, cars- everything they have. In the wake of Hurricane Helene and the incredible destruction it caused less than two weeks ago, this category 4 storm is expected to ravage the state of Florida and it will be deadly.
What many forget during and after these horrific tragedies is just how multi-faceted hurricanes are. In developed society, hurricane relief, evacuation protocol, aid missions and even hurricanes themselves are inherently political. Off the top of my head, I can name over five sociopolitical issues that hurricanes cause or worsen.
And, please, spare me, because, yes, this is political.
It would be stupid to believe that climate change is not a major factor in severe weather. It would be stupid to believe that climate change is not a pressing and immediate issue that has direct impacts on our nation and the entire world. It would be stupid to believe climate change is not real. It is stupid that climate change is a political issue because it is science and absolutely not up for debate.
However, climate change is a polarizing and deeply political issue across the world. Failure to address the causes of climate change and failure to enact policy to protect and preserve the environment has left Americans and citizens of nations across the globe to deal with the consequences of political laziness and idiocy.
Climate scientists have insisted that the progressive warming of the climate has led to simultaneously more frequent and more severe hurricanes. While Hurricane Milton now stands at a category 5 storm, it threatened to break storm models while it was gaining power over the ocean. The frequency of severe weather like Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton is not random. Trust the scientists, not the politicians.
Severe weather becomes increasingly political as you begin to consider the human loss hurricanes and their aftermath causes. Often times, impoverished populations are most disadvantaged, some even unable to leave due to lack of transportation or simply because leaving is unaffordable. There is no mass evacuation transportation system for people experiencing poverty or homelessness, and, to make matters worse, there is no gas to get them out.
Forget buses and cars for a second. The only other option would be to fly out of an evacuation zone… that is if you have over a thousand dollars per person saved to flee via flight.
Transportation only becomes an issue if people actually want to leave their homes. For many, political radicalization and a frankly insane religious fervor sway them to stay, that weather is controlled by Jewish elites (frankly shocking, pathetic and terrifying that it must be emphasized that this is untrue, obviously) and as a result, they are not in real danger, or that God will save them when the storm surge destroys everything they have ever known. Newsflash: God Himself is not coming from the sky, perfectly on queue with a thunderbolt, to rescue you personally off of a roof.
Conservative conspiracies and far-right politics will not save you when your life is in danger. In fact, far-right favorites have actively voted against FEMA funding- shoutout Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rick Scott (R-FL). Thanks, guys, for caring about your constituents and the aid they will inevitably need, arguably more and more every year!
During hurricane season, a.k.a. yearly evangelical propaganda season, my mind often goes to the story of the drowning man, in which a man refuses to evacuate for a flood, insisting God will save him. People in a rowboat offer him help, which he refuses. This process repeats as good Samaritans in a motorboat and helicopter do the same, which he refuses and continues to have faith that God Himself will save him. He drowns. Shocker there. He goes to Heaven and asks God why He didn’t save him. God says, “I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?”
God will not save you from your roof. God will speak to you through your representatives and urge you to evacuate and save your own life. God will come to you through first responders in your time of need. God actively sends aid, and though He doesn’t directly send Himself, it does not mean He has forsaken you.
Hell is high water for all of those who live in areas where hurricanes occur frequently, but there is a population that is rarely considered during mass evacuations.
The incarcerated.
I like to believe that the people are in prison because they have broken the law and are serving time to hopefully re-enter society as a somewhat more functional person. I like to trust that America’s justice system works and cares about delivering justice fairly.
Despite what I like to think, prison evacuations, or rather the lack thereof, is an incredible failure of America’s justice system and democracy in general. When one is convicted of a crime and subsequently incarcerated, they lose rights. This is a basic pillar of our punishment-oriented justice system.
The incarcerated lose the right to privacy, some First Amendment rights, voting (depending on the crime) and can lose more privileges as a result of bad or violent behavior. Prisoners do retain some basic unalienable rights, though, more specifically, prisoners are protected from cruel and unusual punishment.
Being left behind in a hurricane is a violation of guaranteed Eighth Amendment rights. Hurricanes, or any severe weather events for that matter, are not and should not be judge, jury and executioner.
To disregard this egregious violation of civil rights is a failure of our political and justice systems. Prisons and jails are often not required to evacuate during extreme storms, and, often times, are not.
Louisiana prisons during Hurricane Katrina is a disappointing example of this disgusting disregard for human life (it does not matter what that person has done, a person is a person). 6,500 prisoners in multiple different prisons were abandoned by law enforcement, prison guards, prison wardens and the entire state of Louisiana. Left to basically fend for themselves without food, water, ventilation or any way to escape safely, prisoners found themselves trapped, sometimes with dirty water at chest level. After four days, a full ninety-six hours, prisoners were finally evacuated.
Whether you want to hear it or not, hurricanes are political crises. They are Hell on earth for the most marginalized and most vulnerable populations. Yes, this absolutely is a “politics thing.”