topic Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas in Community Chat

Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

Mominohio — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 18:17:21 GMT

All during the last couple of weeks, one question has really haunted me as I watch the preparation for these hurricanes to arrive.

If you have a job, how and when do you make the decision to leave?

I know police, fire, many medical personnel etc. have to stay. They know going in, that it is part of their job. That I get. Same for some others like power company workers etc.

But what about others? When the media and the experts are warning days and days and days in advance, they know it is going to be bad, then the evacuation calls start coming, how do you decide whether you risk your job at the supermarket or the office or the call center, or whatever else would be considered non essential, and pack up and go?

This isn't trivial for so many people. The storms are bad, but the possible loss of not only your property to come back to, but no job as well.....what all do you consider before deciding to stay or to go. Do you send out as much family as you can ahead of you (like a man sending the wife and young kids on and joining them later, or maybe he ends up riding out the storm alone)?

Has anyone here been forced to choose between keeping their job (because they demand you stay to a certain point), and evacuating early?

I can't imagine the added stress in an already stressful situation.

And I know there has to be a good number of people who have experienced this, having companies and bosses who demand you get to work. I know it happens here in bad snow storms. Some places close down, and others, that one would not consider essential at all, tell their employees to get to work regardless of the snow level or the penalty for violating it.

Please share your experiences or those of people you know who have faced this.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

catchersmom — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 18:32:55 GMT

I have been fortunate; my employer has both essential and non-essential employees and they made the decision (back when SC was in the bullseye for a landfall from Irma....wow does that seem like a long time ago!!!) to close for all non-essential staff until Tuesday.

My nephew (in Florida) has worked for Publix for many years. The store he works in let their employees know they wished to stay open as long as they could to allow the community time to get any supplies they might need; but they also stressed if any employee felt they could not be there the employee would not be penalized. Not surprisingly most employees showed up to do what they could and the store closed at noon yesterday.

I know every employer is not as lenient as the two examples from my family, and I feel very blessed that is not a choice we have had to make.

Perhaps with all of these recent, horrific disasters employers will reconsider some of their stances in these situations. I realize there are two sides to every story though, and I imagine some of these businesses might have reasons for needing to open that are beyond my knowledge.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

Laura14 — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 18:46:07 GMT

I can say in my experiences with natural disasters my employers closed. Granted I didn't work in civil service but unless you are in a supermarket or other type of retail that people depend on for prep, you closed. You weren't going to have customers anyway.

And those last minute retailers normally did like some do at Christmas time where they had a final day or hour that they were open until and then they shut it down so their employees could take care of their own families and evacuate if necessary.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

I am still oxox — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 18:50:47 GMT

If your town/county is in a State of Emergency and it is flooded, your would not be expect to be at your desk, much the same with blizzards in NY

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

Lucky Charm — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 18:58:39 GMT

If the governor declares a state of emergency, then anyone on the roads is breaking the law.

Unless you are an essential employee at your company.

You would have either/or a document stating such or a sticker on your employee badge.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

Sooner — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 19:00:09 GMT

It's is terrible and yes a lot of people will lose their jobs. Some bosses make people stay and it is basically a pride thing MY employees didn't leave.

Some convenience stores and gas stations and such really have to stay open and may let go people who leave "early." They don't HAVE to let you go and many many won't.

I keep thinking about those poor people under financial or social pressure to stay or lose their job. It is just awful. A lot of people have to endure a lot to stay employed.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

SilleeMee — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 19:15:01 GMT

On more than one occasion, we had severe blizzard conditions here, not a hurricane, and I was ordered to stay in my position at work. I was part of an emergency service crew so it was part of my job description to provide help when needed. We rotated duty hours. Food and sleeping facilities were provided so there wasn't any issues with that. My biggest concern was my dog at home. Thankfully I had a friend who could check on her.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

gmkb — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 19:23:33 GMT

We are experiencing the hurricane as I speak.
I am in the hospital and there is a full staff on duty. There seem to be too many employees here because there is a lot of chit chat among the younger ones going on all day.
My husband has a part time job for a private company and was expected to be there today even though there is a curfew in effect.
He is there until 9:30 tonight.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

happycat — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 19:43:29 GMT

@gmkb, your poor husband, I think his boss should be in trouble. Praying you both stay safe. Holy moly.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

Himi lover — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 19:43:58 GMT

I was wondering the same thing too. I would think a lot of businesses are closed. I was watching TWC, video from Miami. With all that wind and flooding, who could be expected to go to work?

I think some hospital personnel are probably sleeping there.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

Bird mama — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 19:45:22 GMT

@gmkb You were on my mind and I'm sorry to read that you are in the hospital. What a rip that your husband has to report to work :-(

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

CatsyCline — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 19:46:05 GMT

i was working retail when Hurricane Bob hit eastern LI in August of '91.

my store was in Bridgehampton and my manager (also my freind) was already there that morning and told me to come in. the height of the storm was just around 1pm where we were. i said no way was i going to drive out there. even though we were west of the eye. she stayed and the store got flooded and there were trees down so the roads were impassable for a few days after. she was a bit perturbed but i was already on my way out of there, i moved to MA a month later

have had many bad and treacherous snowstorms to deal with. always a minute by minute thing at work, rarely were we given the green light to leave unless we left on our own and then it looked like you were a wimp. sometimes getting home took hours and hours driving 5mph behind plows. only one company had a firm rule they did not want the employees driving in bad weather. we all had laptops and worked from home. it was the best!! looking at the snow swirling out the window knowing you didnt have to drive in it.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

FrostyBabe1 — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 19:55:46 GMT

I spent most of my career working for a Fortune 500 company with HQ in Michigan. While hurricanes certainly aren't an issue here, horrendous winter weather can be. There were no exceptions given for blizzard conditions. If you weren't going to be at work, it was either a vacation day or, for the hourly staff, lost time. It had to be that way because of people who choose to live 40-50 miles away, out in the middle of nowhere, and then would complain that the weather was too bad to get there on a regular basis. When the company HQ moved to NJ, those offices would close at the mention of a snow flake, but the offices in Michigan were still expected to be fully staffed.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

LTT1 — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 20:29:42 GMT

@gmkb

I hope you are going to be ok? Just learned you are in the hospital! 😮

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

Mominohio — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 20:32:53 GMT

For those that are addressing the time during the actual storm, I know there would be no question as to what one should do, but I'm really asking about the need or desire to evacuate days before a storm hits.

IT seems like if one waits until the last 48 hours to hit the road, there are traffic jams, gas shortages etc.

I would be more inclined to pack up and leave days before that, but realize that many employers still expect you to be showing up until the last hours before it hits.

Every time there is a hurricane like this, I think of all the people who can't afford to loose their job, continuing to report to work, but want to be preparing for and getting out early.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

katiescarlett — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 20:39:21 GMT

I work for a university that is a state agency. To keep things simple, state agencies make the decision to close or stay open based on what the county does where the agency is located. So, the county where my university is located is closed tomorrow because of high winds and heavy rains, so we are closed -often the counties make the decision based on whether they want to risk school buses on the roads, and we have a lot of rural two-lane roads. It will be up to the Governor to decide as to whether the time will be forgiven or if we will make it up or take annual leave - so far it has always been forgiven.

So, in answer to your question, I don't have to worry about not having a job to go back to. I went through Hurricane Hugo and listening to that wind howl through the night scared the pants off of me. I huddled in my hall with my dog and a little battery operated black and white TV. And I am 130 miles from the coast! My brother went through Katrina in Gulfport and he said he was having some PTSD looking at the pictures from Houston and from FL.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

DiAnne — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 20:39:29 GMT

@Mominohio wrote:
For those that are addressing the time during the actual storm, I know there would be no question as to what one should do, but I'm really asking about the need or desire to evacuate days before a storm hits.

IT seems like if one waits until the last 48 hours to hit the road, there are traffic jams, gas shortages etc.

I would be more inclined to pack up and leave days before that, but realize that many employers still expect you to be showing up until the last hours before it hits.

Every time there is a hurricane like this, I think of all the people who can't afford to loose their job, continuing to report to work, but want to be preparing for and getting out early.

I think those are some of the people that are in the shelters. I know I worked in hospitals and never would have had the ability to leave several days early. That is just the way it is.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

chrystaltree — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 20:41:23 GMT

Work? Who the heck would go to work at grocery store or dry cleaner's or when their safety or the safety and well being of their family is at stake? I work for a hospital but I do not work in patient care; I'm not a nurse or physician or lab tech or xray tech. So, work would not even be on my horizon. We knew a week ago that FL was going to be in the bull's eye and we knew that this was one huge, historical storm the likes of which we have not seen. So, like most of my friends and aquaintences, we would have left FL and headed north days and days ago. We certainly wouldn't have waited for the roads to be impassable or for gas to run out. My husband is a nurse but has an administrative job now. He's stand up guy so it's real possibility that he would have gone to his hospital to do whatever needed to be done but he'd have stayed there for the duration. Hospitals always arrange sleeping space for staff and they need everyone. If he decided to stay, I would leave alone or with whoever wanted to come with me. My family would make room for anyone I brought with me. Essential jobs aren't grocery store clerks. Essential means patient care, fire, police, ambulance, utility workers.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

chrystaltree — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 20:43:51 GMT

@Lucky Charm wrote:
If the governor declares a state of emergency, then anyone on the roads is breaking the law.

Unless you are an essential employee at your company.

You would have either/or a document stating such or a sticker on your employee badge.

I assume if you are dead, you don't have to worry about losing your job and since this the type of storm that can kill you....I darn sure wouldn't care about some convenience store job or being their so people stock up on chips and water. Let the owner stay.

Re: Question for those who live in hurricane prone areas

gmkb — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 20:44:10 GMT

He works for a security company that provides gate attendants for gated housing developments.
He is manning the gate but no one is coming or going.