CNN Poll:

[elehhhhna]

Can you understand people being reluctant to leave New Orleans despite the disaster?

http://www.cnn.com/

[iconoclastic cat]

1. Done. And, yes.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

2. done. n/t

[devinsgram]

3. Done

[jzodda]

4. yeah, actually I can

I remember a great scene from the movie fight club where brad pitt was telling edward norton about eventually our stuff starts to own us, and not we owning it.

Some people are so attached to their personal belongings, and this effects people of all classes and races, that they will not leave no matter what.

Some, even if it kills them. Off the top of my head I can think of several people I know that would probably have to be forced out even if there is 3 feet of water in their living room or they are stuck on a porch for weeks.

[Douglas Carpenter]

5. done

[Ganja Ninja]

6. Yes I can.

I can imagine whole neighborhoods being bulldozed to make way for new larger homes. I can imagine developers drooling over the vacant land in the big easy. I can imagine people who's homes are damaged but salvageable coming back to find they no longer own a home or the land it sat on.

[Kindigger]

7. I talked to my Mom last night

for the first time since the hurricane hit. She was very emotional as she spoke of the pictures she'd seen of the people who wouldn't leave...the people in the doorways with pets. I couldn't believe it when she started crying on the phone. She said, "Why can't they understand these pets are a part of their families?" My Mom and Dad don't even have pets!

:cry:

[never_get_over_it]

12. I thought about the pet issue all weekend

I have three and until very recently I had four - two dogs and two cats - all of us evacuated for Frances and we rode out Jeanne together. My dogs are fairly old - I have a fourteen year old who truthfully doesn't have a long time left - and I COULD NOT EVEN IMAGINE LEAVING HIM or the other two. To think I would abandon them to die alone and terrified would not be an option - I even thought but what if that meant I would die too - and I can not get my head to accept that I would ever leave them - maybe if I was actually faced with the situation I would or could but I swear to God I can not imagine doing so.

I guess its not that I can't imagine them dying - I have had to put four cats to sleep - but it is how they would die that makes me crazy.

The cat I just lost had a diabetic crash while I was traveling - my friend who was watching him rushed him to the emergency vets - they could get his sugar regulated but he suffered severe brain damage. This happened the night before I was due to return home. We kept him alive hoping that there would be some improvement but there wasn't and I had to let him go....but before I did I sat with him for and hour and calming talked to him and I believe because we had that hour he died a peaceful and gentle death. My friend asked me did we do the right thing by taking him the emergency vet because of the expense - and I told her it was worth EVERY FREAKING PENNY to have that hour with my sweet Cooper - I can't imagine leaving the others behind to die alone....

[peacetalksforall]

8. There are hundreds of reasons - pets, social security check, fear, hope,

disability, parents and grandparents owned the home, distrust of the government, never left their house durig a lifetime of approaching hurricanes, no tv, isolated socially, alone.

Bigots and thieves don't try to think very hard except about their obsessions so they may not come up with any reason.

[txindy]

9. Done. And I can understand it.

NO is their HOME. Some may never have been outside of LA. They don't want to leave and go whoknowswhere. I certainly wouldn't trust my family or myself to the people who abandoned us in the first place. People are being shipped all over the country without even being told where they're going, even those with family in other parts of Louisiana or the South. This is just not right.

[Ian David]

10. Done. 64% Yes, 36% No

Can you understand people being reluctant to leave New Orleans despite the disaster?
Yes


64%

71511 votes
No


36%

40455 votes
Total: 111966 votes

http://www.cnn.com/

[displacedtexan]

11. Did you hear Olbermann's rant the other night? He explained...

... that many poor people feared the high cost of being rescued.

They thought it would work like ambulance fees, and they knew they couldn't pay.

That's the sorrow and the pity of poverty.

[kstewart33]

13. Done!

No car, no credit cards, not enough cash? Duh!