Really Staten Island?????

[bread_and_roses]

45. A week's worth of bottled water and food is an insurmountable barrier

if you are poor. Poor people often finish out the month eating whatever canned goods and pasta are available at the local food bank. And figuring out what to have eat if there's no way to cook it takes thought, skill, planning - and the ability to make sure those items are on hand, which is often beyond the budget if you are poor. Spending money on bottled water for the "emergency pantry" - not to mention batteries, flashlights, etc - is not on the list when you're looking at a meal of canned spinach and macaroni from the food bank. If you are three weeks into your EBT/FS benefits there is no way you are going to have the resources to go out and buy those things.

I agree that people should have evacuated, but I also know how frightening that can be, and that there are myriad reasons why people don't. Humans are humans are humans. We're not really rational actors much of the time.