It’s been widely reported that the Eastern Shore is going to get whacked the hardest by all this Irene business, and Ocean City was hit with a mandatory evacuation order late Thursday. And Gov. Martin O’Malley is having none of this crap about you not leaving because you’re on vacation.
“It is the height of stupidity and the height of selfishness for any citizen to stay in Ocean City and put a burden on and risk the lives of first responders by being foolish, being stupid, or being selfish,” O’Malley said Friday, according to Gaithersburg Patch. “This is a mandatory evacuation order… People need to get off the island of Ocean City and not be a burden to their fellow citizens or to first responders who are going to have plenty of other important work to do.”
It looks like the tough love might have worked, too — WUSA9 reported late Friday night that the evacuation went “almost flawlessly,” and “more than 150-thousand tourists and locals have streamed off the barrier island as Irene prepares a backhanded slap.”
