Sanford Leaves Car less Constituents behind in Hurricane Evacuation

Mark Sanford just sent out an email about hurricane preparations.  Like last weeks disastrously incomplete State Hurricane Preparation Guide Sanford’s email ignores the reality that tens of thousands of people living in his district don’t have access to an automobile to evacuate. On Tuesday, June 12 Change your Congressman.

One telling paragraph indicates how completely blind Sanford remains to the struggle some people in the Lowcountry have to merely get to their employment or medical appointments on a good day, much less evacuate their families and belongings before an oncoming storm.

Someone on Sanford’s staff writes (and he presumably approved)

“Keep your automobile fully fueled; if electric power is cut off, gas stations may not be able to operate pumps for several days.”

Evidently it never occurred to anyone on Sanford’s staff that thousands of people don’t have an automobile to fuel for a quick run up to Asheville or Atlanta to escape the storm. Like last year they’ll be calling overloaded emergency lines to collect inaccurate and improperly grounded information about poorly organized hurricane evacuation system cobbled together with unused school buses in the hands of well meaning, but ill prepared drivers. See video about the struggle of ahomeless woman in Charleston’s effort to connect with an evacuation bus as Irma roared towards Charleston.

Of course a Hurricane merely magnifies the impact of the changes in American society Sanford is clueless about that his opponent Dimitri Cherny indicates are destroying American society and economic upward mobility. See Cherny campaign video on the plight of the next generation.

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit emailed a copy of their blogpost to Sanford's staff last week and sent out a press release to local media. When called about the problems in the letter as the letter itself suggested, Sanford's Mt. Pleasant staff hung up.

Late in the Email Sanford does mention Island Breeze, the hired help bus system which attempts to keep Hilton Head supplied with service labor. However unless you know that, you would stand little chance of guessing that Island Breeze might be providing the vehicles for an emergency evacuation program for those without cars.

When you do figure that out, the referenced emergency phone lines are likely to be overloaded and if you go online this year, as we did for Irma, it’s likely any description of the emergency evacuation system will be incomplete and poorly planned by someone who comfortably drives a car to work and has never even seen where the exposed bus stops for the maybe evacuation buses are located.

Last year Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit protested the miserable condition of our Hurricane Evacuation bus procedures on Charleston County. They prepared a detailed report and recommendations to solve the problems after Hurricane Irma.. They delivered a copy to Sanford’s Mount Pleasant office as well as CARTA, Mount Pleasant Town Council, the full CARTA Board (Executive Director of CARTA Ron Mitchum adopted the recommendations as his own) and the private company which actually ran the buses.

The problems haven’t been fixed. Sanford and our other leaders have decided merely to ignore them and leave the pesky details out of their planning of how people who don’t have a car can escape oncoming death in the form of a hurricane which our long, very hot summer is likely to breed and sustain until it grinds across our community.

A powerful transit system like the long planned BRT line between Summerville and Charleston would not only improve everyday life in Charleston but also serve as the spine of a powerful evacuation system in an emergency. Shelter spaces should be developed along the line. Sanford has failed to support getting the BRT built and has introduced legislation to end all federal public transit funding.

We urge you to vote for a new and better congressman on June 12. Blind neglect like this kills people.  It did so in New Orleans 13 years ago and in Houston last year. Sanford's letter betrays a level of self indulgent ignorance inconsistent with responsible civic leadership in an area subject to hurricane emergencies every year.

Votefor Dimitry Cherny and change your congressman next week in the Republican Primary on May 12.

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