Please Hold Some Empathy And Understanding For Ppl In This Dire Situation - Tumblr Posts

Evacuation is not equal access

This is something that is CRUCIAL to remember as Hurricane Helene impacts Florida and the surrounding areas. There are so, so many factors that can effect a person's ability to evacuate, even if they want to. Things like:

What languages was the evacuation information distributed in?

Was the information made accessible to deaf and blind people?

Was it made accessible to people regardless of their age?

Was it made accessible to people regardless of their access to or use of technology?

Were there transportation methods available to get people to evacuation points if they don't have transportation of their own? Did those methods actually access everywhere that needed them?

Were the transportation methods for people without cars, both to the evacuation point and then to the actual evacuation site, accessible to all manner of abilities?

Was there support for single parents?

Was clear, understandable information provided about where people would be evacuated to and what would happen once they were there?

Was there support for undocumented immigrants that fear deportation if they accept help?

Was there support for the homeless population?

Then, of course, there's the larger structural issues:

Can the roads actually handle the amount of people trying to get out?

On those roads, what support is there for vehicles that breakdown or run out of gas? Or people who have a medical emergency while evacuating?

Are the places they are evacuating to even ready and able to take them?

And that all just BARELY scratches the surface of how complex evacuations are. It is not an easy choice to leave no matter who you are, but for some people it isn't even a choice at all because they were never given the option in the first place, and that is not their fault.