Hurricane Milton was about to make landfall in Tampa when the Florida city’s mayor, Jane Castor, issued a grim warning. “If you choose to stay, you will die,” he told residents in evacuation zones on October 7. About 5.5 million people are ordered to leave Florida.
But not everyone can leave their homes to avoid the hurricane. According to Cara Cuite, an associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology at Rutgers University, there are generally two reasons why people don’t flee their homes during weather crises and despite warnings from authorities.
On the one hand, there are those who consider the risks exaggerated or who feel out of danger. On the other, those who cannot do so due to their situation or structural conditions. In the case of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall in Tampa Bay Wednesday evening, the first group is probably quite small, Cuite says, referring to the unequivocal messages from Castor and other authorities about the dire consequences of staying put. To understand the second group, here are some of the possible reasons:
1. The cost of the trip
The U.S. Federal Reserve estimated in 2023 that nearly 40% of Americans could not afford an emergency cash expenditure of $400. According to a 2021 study, people who evacuated the Texas coastal area during Hurricane Harvey spent an average of $1,200 during the emergency, an even higher amount for those who had to stay overnight in hotels.
Residents who use their car during the evacuation, provided the vehicle is in working order, must pay for gas, hotel, food and any other urgent needs. If the evacuation is by plane, the cost of the ticket will have to be added to the above-mentioned expenses, provided that they can get to the airport. Following accusations against airlines of price gouging just as people were trying to flee Florida, some companies said they had capped their prices.
“Any socioeconomic inequality that exists on a daily basis will be accentuated during a disaster,” says Cierra Chenier, a New Orleans historian and writer. “The most vulnerable communities are always those who suffer the most. »
In anticipation of Hurricane Milton’s arrival, Florida health officials deployed nearly 600 emergency vehicles to facilitate evacuations. The Florida Division of Emergency Management also offers free evacuation buses to shelters.
Federal Emergency Management Agency [Fema, por sus siglas en inglés] provides financial assistance to victims of Category 4 Hurricane Helene, which claimed the lives of more than 225 people on September 27 in the states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. But help may not reach everyone who needs it on time. Or that it never happens.
2. Nowhere to go
Many shelters, hotels and potential rentals for Floridians fleeing Hurricane Milton are already full because of Hurricane Helene.
As Stacy Willet, a professor of emergency management and homeland security at the University of Akron, explains, lack of anticipation of where to go can prevent people from leaving. “Invitational evacuation is one of the best ways to get people out,” he says. “If they have a place to go, if they know they have a home in a safe area, sometimes just knowing that that place exists and is available to the person in a disaster area so people can move more quickly. »
But there are also people forced to look for accommodation and who do not have this network of friends or family. If shelters within reasonable distances are overcrowded and hotels do not have vacancies, these people must travel excessive distances or stay and try to ride out the storm.
3. Disability
During an evacuation, the specific needs of people with illness or disability may not be apparent to people without disabilities. But the truth is that disability and illness can be reasons why people don’t leave their homes. It’s even more difficult if they need to travel.
“It’s very difficult if you have a disability and you don’t have an accessible place to evacuate to, or you don’t have a vehicle,” Cuite says. “You need to find suitable transport assistance, for example, a wheelchair or whatever you need because of your disability; These things can get complicated, especially when you fall into multiple categories.
4. Pets
Some shelters don’t allow pets, and those that do may set a maximum number or only allow certain types of animals. So many people choose to stay and not evacuate to take care of themselves.
“People sometimes stay to protect their homes or to protect animals they can’t take with them,” Cuite said. “In more rural areas, they may not be pets but farm animals; “People feel a responsibility to stay and take care of the things and animals in their care. »
5. Fear of not being able to return
Louisiana’s evacuation before Hurricane Katrina involved approximately 1.5 million people. Many of them were unable to return. For some, and especially for those who have already been displaced by natural disasters, the fear of leaving and not being able to return, or of returning to nothing, is reason enough to try to survive the hurricane without leaving the places.
“It’s good that there are full buses to evacuate people quickly, but who knows how these people will cope with the separation from their families, which we know happens, how long they will be absent? “We don’t know what the effects of these storms will be, or what steps are being taken to ensure people retain their right to housing and return?
Translation by Francisco de Zárate.
