An answer to the question "Why didn't they leave?" re N.O. evacuees

[LittleClarkie]

I posted a conversation with a friend a little while ago. She's been helping with the evacuees who came to Wisconsin, 206 of them.

She got into a conversation with one of them re: why they'd stayed.

The answer she got was that the hurricane hadn't been that bad. As Bush keeps saying, they thought they'd dodged the bullet. Considering how many hurricanes they'd seen (the man my friend was talking to had survived Camille) it's not surprising that a certain number figured they could ride it out. But when the levees the broke, the flood waters came in faster than they could move.

Anyway, that's one man's account of why folks like him didn't bug out of New Orleans as some have suggested they should have.

Just thought I'd share that extra bit.

[applegrove]

1. It is well known and predictable that people get tired of evacuation

orders. There was a story last year on Hawaii and how the people there were starting to ignore tsunami warnings.

Fact is the government knows all this. The federal just like the local. It is predictable. As is that some people with no money or cars will be left behind.

[Coastie for Truth]

2. I have worked with disaster victims (apartment complex fires,

localized floods, tornados).

A certain amount/mix of:
1) It won't happen.
2) I survived the last 2, 10, 20 whatever.
3) Personal (irrational) feeling of immortality, invincibility.
4) The geology, topography, whatever is such that it will swerve away at the last minute.

[LittleClarkie]

3. None of which warrents a death penalty

If one more person make it sound like these people got what they deserved, I'm going to puke all over them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. And every one in a while you have to literally pull them out

at the last possible second... yes I know the feeling, been there, done that...

But you also forgot another one

5) if I leave they will steal all I have, I have to stay to defend my property.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. How about

I am
a. in a wheelchair
b. in a nursing home or hospitalized
c. a child living with my parents

and leaving is not an option for me.