The Refugees

Ethics Resource Center 2004
Jerry Brown

The process of acquiring plywood to board up the house should have warned us that all was not well with the world. An early morning call to a local lumber dealer netted the information that 4x8 sheets of particleboard were selling for $12.00 a sheet with plenty in stock. A follow up call a couple of hours later saw the price at $14.00 a sheet. Apparently, some local merchants felt the additional profit from price gouging was worth the risk of being reported to the authorities.  The first ethical challenge – pay the increased rate or leave the house unprotected. We paid.

The weather reporting was sensationalistic. The Weather Channel, Fox News, CBS, NBC and the other major networks seemed to be competing for viewer ship.  The public’s desire for news was a valid concern and, while the networks tried to answer that need with accurate data, there seemed to be as much speculation as fact. The storm track changed every few hours and it became impossible to determine whether or not you were in danger. A report that the hurricane was headed for the Biloxi, Ocean Springs area provided the impetus for us to leave.

Although we only needed to travel 200 miles to offer a margin of safety, we decided to add another fifty miles just to be sure. After all, Ivan’s path had been erratic which is why we, and so many others, were finishing preparation within 24 hours of projected landfall.

We left Ocean Springs, Mississippi, heading west on Interstate 10 driving a rental car because our small sports sedan was cramped and the air conditioner showed signs of fatigue.  The large sedan was new and fast and we had no problem reaching Baton Rouge, Louisiana in two hours.

The next eleven miles took four hours.

The State of Louisiana had ordered residents in low lying areas to evacuate and now a million residents from the greater New Orleans area had joined them. The resulting strain on the Interstate road system had taken its toll. Louisiana had closed the eastbound lanes of I-10 to accommodate the massive traffic flow heading toward the Texas border.

This left us stuck on back roads with thousands of vehicles filled with other refugees fleeing what was touted to be a killer storm. With the warning for Hurricane Ivan stretching from western Louisiana to the Atlantic coast of Florida, a distance of almost 700 miles, the exodus of people was virtually astounding.

We soon discovered we could not find a vacant motel room in Louisiana. Forewarned about the New Orleans evacuation, motels were filled to capacity. The question was asked repeatedly, "Where are you coming from.” When we answered Mississippi, we were advised to proceed to Texas. Vacancies could be found in the Dallas area or perhaps San Antonio. The same happened to people from Alabama and Florida.

We drove into Texas and some 15 hours after our exodus began, we arrived in Gilmer, a pleasant northeast Texas town where we managed to find a motel. The car behind us contained people from Biloxi who had been on the road as long as we had. We had all begun to look like refugees, disheveled, tired and almost shell-shocked.

We spent three days in Gilmer and it restored our confidence in the goodness of people. No one charged a premium rate for food or shelter. People were polite and concerned. When we could not contact local authorities in Ocean Springs to determine the extent of damage, the Texas Department of Public Safety generously inquired on our behalf and determined that residents were being allowed back in the area and that our property, while somewhat damaged, had survived the storm.

From an ethical standpoint, one has to question which is more important, the safety of people or a few extra dollars made through price increases?

Should what appeared to be a quest for viewer ship through gloom and doom reporting override the transfer of meaningful information in an emergency?

What is more important, to rent rooms to individuals who are in need or to hold rooms for people from the region even through they do not have reservations? This sort of "refugee” treatment is expected in some Third World nations, but not in the United States.

As the hurricane seasons winds down and battered Florida and the Gulf Coast states begin their reconstruction efforts, we should all do some serious thinking about the next disaster, whatever form it takes.