Question for those who live in hurricane prone are... - Page 2

Bird mama · ‎03-12-2010

@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 :-(

There are many elements: wind, fire, water
But none quite like the element of surprise

CatsyCline · ‎07-24-2013

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.

FrostyBabe1 · ‎05-09-2016

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.

~The more someone needs to brag about how wonderful, special, successful, wealthy or important they are, the greater the likelihood that it isn't true. ~

LTT1 · ‎03-09-2010

@gmkb

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

~Have a Kind Heart, Fierce Mind, Brave Spirit~

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

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.

katiescarlett · ‎03-24-2010

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.

Saving one dog won’t change the world, but it will surely change the world for that one dog
Richard C. Call

DiAnne · ‎09-22-2010

@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.

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

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.

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

@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.