I live in the palm desert area, where the eye passed right over a couple days ago. Some parts are completely flooded and the high winds did a lot of damage. We’ve all seen the rescue effort on tv where bulldozers and first responders work to dig people out of their flooded homes, but the storm prep itself was morally disgusting and I don’t know where else to rant about it.
The fire department was issuing 10 sandbags to each house, without 1 thing: sand. You were on your own for that. A lot of people went to vacant lots to grab some of that abundant desert sand, but sure enough police showed up to issue fines and block off the areas, because despite the sand out here being completely unusable for construction (we have to import sand from overseas oddly enough), it’s more important to protect the private property of the rich people who aren’t even here. That’s right, this is a desert, so this time of year anyone with any money is off at their summer home, and all industry shuts down. These were the same first responders pulling people out of the mud in the low income areas. Now, the fire department did have sand to give out, but it went to commercial businesses first, like the Apple Store, the high end jewelry store, etc. (who both to my knowledge took over 50 sandbags for their doors by having multiple employees show up to claim their personal ones). Those same businesses had their employees cover their assets in plastic and evacuate what they could, yet had their employees stay for their full shift to make sales despite the doors being barricaded and the store mostly empty. More care for the product that for their employees.
What this showed me firsthand is that the government is not here to help you, your boss is not here to help you, and the second we enter into an emergency situation, you as a working class resident and voter have no value to the powers that be. Want to protect your home? Punishment. Want to leave early so you can prepare your home, collect your loved ones, and get home before the bulk of it hits? Punishment. I have friends who got stuck on the freeway because they went into work, friends who sheltered at their place of work and relied on others to shore up their homes while they ran around patching leaks and watching for looters at their near-minimum wage jobs.
It’s so sickening to see how expendable we are seen time and time again over the course of just a few years. If this system is going to keep walking all over me and throwing me to the wolves every time we face a crisis, I absolutely can’t accept that this is “just the way things are”. I thought the purpose of society was to look out for each other and make sure everyone has their needs met, yet time and time again I see the “essential workforce” abandoned at the first sign of trouble, then reminded that if they don’t go back to work everything will fall apart. I can’t keep picking myself up and acting like nothing happened knowing that the second things get bad I’m on my own again. I don’t know what it’s going to take to change things fundamentally enough that we value human life over private property, but when the revolution comes, I’ll be there.