According to this article in the Inquirer today, we are not prepared. Not even close. This was a subject of conversation that came up with a friend recently. We were talking about Katrina, and how the people who couldn’t get out where mainly black and poor, and how the population of North Philadelphia is strikingly similar. We reasoned that the people who had the resources would get out of town (like New Orleans), but those without cars and financial resources would be stuck (like New Orleans). This article admits that Philadelphia has no plan for mass evacuation, Pedro Ramos, the city’s managing director goes so far to admit that they haven’t even thought about it since the beginning of the cold war.

I hope that Philadelphia never needs a massive evacuation plan. I would like to assume that this city will continue to chug along like it has for the last 400+ years, but these days, you really can’t count on it. I hope that Mayor Street and the rest of the players in city government are sincere when they say that it is their priority to ensure the safety of the people of Philadelphia, and do their part to create plans to enact if they ever need to keep us safe by getting us out. Sadly, I’m not going to believe it until I see it.