listening to fox news tonight, I can't believe the numbers of people that left for the superdome and neglected to take I.D. with them. Greta Van S. was going on and on about these people that didn't have driver's licenses and social security cards on them -- how are they going to start over, etc, without even basic I.D.? That is the absolute first thing everyone ought to have on their person at all times. What were these people thinking?

Are these the same people who didn't have enough time to get their shoes on because the water was rising too fast? I knew about the hurricane before it got to Florida, what channel were these people watching?

Maybe something along the lines of, "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

My guess is that most of the people may not have given any prior thought to the "what if's" of life and were in a state of extreme panic.

You still need your ID if you are going to die.

Cool! I had not realized that you needed ID in order to die. Many times in my life I've been disturbed by the notion of death; as Woody Allen put it, "I don't want to achieve immortality through my works, I want to achieve it by not dying". Now I realize that all I have to do is throw away my ID and I'm safe <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.

More seriously, lots of those folks were really dirt poor. Most everyone with a car got out of NO. The ones left had no cars and thus lower numbers of drivers' licenses. It was a rushed, disorganized bugout and "let me see your papers" was the last thing most people probably had on their minds.

Good point -- having grown up in the 'burbs, I've had a driver's permit/license since high school, but I think a fair number of city-dwellers don't bother with getting or keeping one. Social Security cards are pretty useless -- no photo -- and passports are expensive, even though they now last for 10 years.

But I also agree that the underlying problem was panic and disorganization-- if you don't even think about what could happen in a crisis or problematic situation (let alone take any steps to prepare), it's very difficult to be practical or even rational when TSHTF.

If I'm not mistaken, even the poor have to have some kind of I.D. to get foodstamps or welfare -- I could be wrong, I've never had to apply for either, but not every single person that decided to stay in New Orleans Area was dirt poor or had no I.D. -- I just don't believe that.

No, I'm not saying they didn't have ID at all -- it's just that if you have a driver's license, it tends to be with you (in your wallet) all the time because most adult Americans drive daily. My passport stays in my home safe unless I'm traveling internationally, and my work ID is valid for only 2 things -- getting me into my office building, and getting my employee discount when shopping. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Also, doesn't welfare/foodstamp aid now come as direct-deposits to debit cards? (Could have sworn I read about that somewhere.) In which case, one would probably only need government-issued photo ID when applying for the account/card/aid.

Then again, we exorted day after day to NEVER carry our SS cards on our person, to store them in a safe place, perhaps a lock box or a safe depost box. Couple that with a rapidly escalating emergency situation, plus the fact under extreme stress our brains tend to stall out and we are unable to think (let alone clearly), and I'm not surprised no one has their Social Security cards.

Driver's Licenses, now that's another story altogether.

-- Craig

Are these people who got a shelter before the rain started to fall, or after?

I've had clothes taken off of me by rushing water. I've had my wallet fall out of my back pocket when sitting down or sliding down osomething on my but. If these were people who'd been in the water, with thier wallets in the back left pocket of thier pants, the river might have wanted it. Or thier ID was in a crude, clumsy BOB-type package, and they lost it in evac. Stuff happens.

I don't have much sympathy for people who didn't plan, but I'm not going to kick them when they are down becuase they screwed up. Or had bad luck. They've learned thier lesson, and hopefully next time they will be a little more ready.

For us to judge the average citizen on survival topics is like Lance Armstrong snickering at other people on a bike. We are to survival as the Olympics are to sports, guys, at the very least. Maybe even the minor league- professional, but we can't make a living on it. For us, we lean on the fence that seperates the proud and the arrogant- grass on one side, huge amounts of poo on the other, splinters in the middle. I'm guilty of straddling that line, we all are here.

Let's not get poo on ourselfs.