Ok I was raised thinking my family was a lot poorer than we were. Basically my parents raised us to take care of our selves and not to be dependent on anyone. Both parents are from small town Alabama.
But anyway I was up at a friends wedding in West Virginia back in 2011ish when the tornado touched down in Charleston, which is where the wedding was.
This was the day before the wedding and they had invited all of the guests out to the dinner the night before since so few guests made it. The dinner was held in one of the parks near the airport. Tornado comes thru knocks over some trees, scares the crap out of people, but no one is harmed in our area. After checking on everyone the park people tell everyone they have to leave. Problem is the road is blocked out and there are a bunch of cars (we weren't the only ones in the park) stuck on this small road. The car I was in was near the front of the line. We see the park people drive up to see what the issue was. We all get out of our cars cause it turned into a couple hour wait. I end up walking up to see what the hold up was and there were a couple trees down about 50 feet from the first car. Park employees were standing there looking confused and concerned. These weren't big trees, and really only one of them was blocking the entire length of road, but no one could get out.
We wait about two hours for the local rescue crew to roll up to us. they check on everyone, make sure there are no medical needs, or nothing on fire or anything crazy. Once they walked the park, the majority get up and leave, they don't even cut up the tree. They leave one emergency crew to relay info. I ask what is going on, why couldnt we leave? I was told there were trees down, I asked if it was only those in front of us. They said no, trees down everywhere, but besides the trees in front of us the way to the main road was clear for us. So I asked why didn't they clear the road? Oh we have to wait on the guy with the chain saw. I asked why, he responded we have nothing to cut the tree up. I ask about the axe they have hanging in their truck painted bright red, "oh thats not for cutting wood".
u wot m8?
Now I am not some billy bad ass outdoors man. But I have cut up trees much bigger than 6" diameter with a freaking axe before. I ask how long can we expect to wait, oh it will be several hours. I ask if they know how to use an axe, and if I could cut up the tree with it. No its not allowed, they are only allowed to use chain saws to clear trees.
again, u wot m8?
I ask if they would be fine with me looking at the trees to see about clearing the debris for the guy to cut up the trees a little easier. they said sure, they couldn't be sued if I got myself hurt and then they laughed at me. At this point we had been stuck for 3 or 4 hours.
As I get up there and start moving some of the broken branches I realize I can break off enough of the tree to clear a path. So I start working on it. It was three trees that had fallen together and they were pretty intertwined. But I was able to break it up so that the longest tree was free from the others. and me and one other friend of mine end up physically pulling the tree to one side. This took us about an hour, if they had given the darn axe it would have taken about 20 minutes by myself.
after the way was clear the emergency people came and looked at it, and got upset "what did you do that for" "why did you move the tree" "should have just waited for the chain saw, it would have been easier"
it was at that moment I knew I could never count on the government to save the people, and that I was better left fending for myself. an hour of my own work literally using only my own two hands did more than 6 hours of the emergency response arm of the government could. and who knows how long it would have been before a magical chain saw showed up.
I get that we were a relatively low priority, but I just don't get the point of standing around while people need help, better to just get it done. That lesson has stuck with me.
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