As I was going to sleep last night I was reading an account of a group of people in New Orleans saying they could not evacuate because they don’t have access to enough gasoline or enough money to pay for a place to stay.

This can’t be terribly unusual. People around here where I live tend to be poor. I ask myself what they would do if we all had to evacuate. I know for sure many of them simply would not have the means to do so.

Then I ask myself why almost all federal disaster aid comes after the disaster. Sure it’s important to support people in crisis after a hurricane passes, and it’s important to rebuild.

But shouldn’t we have evacuation plans in place too? Isn’t spending federal funds on getting people out of town as effective or more effective than taking care of them after the storm has destroyed their homes or otherwise damaged their lives?