Not to hi-jack a serious topic, but I am encouraged to see people taking shelter and considering their options here. Unlike Hurricane Katrina where they were below sea level, weathered a hurricane, then blamed the President for not acting soon enough when they didn't take heed of the warnings.
J- I pray your daughter and everyone possibly affected by these hurricanes make the best decisions and come out of it safe!
Almost 100% of residents in the impact area surrounding nawleas evacuated... And and estimated 80% of the city evacuated ahead of the storm.... The 20% that remained have and always will rely on the government for their existence... That 20% of nawleans relied on the government before the storm, and they relied on the government after the storm.. This however should not cast a dim light on the other 90% of the people whom did evacuate.. The view through a camera lens only shows a small fraction of the truth.. And thousands of empty houses with boarded up windows is not what shock factor media look to report.
And something else you must understand... The vast majority of the damage in the nawleans area was not caused directly by the hurricane. It was due to catastrophic failure of the levee system.. Areas along the Mississippi coast saw utter devastation by the hurricane itself because they took the east side of the storm. Nawleans actually got lucky as far as hurricanes are concerned by getting the west side of the storm...
The drive we made down the coastal road in gulfport Ms when we picked up your truck, everything along that route was gone after Katrina. Remember the restaurant we at in. They had a big picture by the entrance.. After Katrina there was nothing left but a concrete slab.. The Bright Casinos on the water were gone... Even those 50 foot palm trees in the median along the strip were brought in and replanted.
Yet they did not have significant deaths. They evacuated.. And here a short 5 years later you would never have guess the place looked like Heroshima after katrina.. And to give you an Idea of scale. That's a cruise ship docked in the bottom of the left frame. (before) picture. We drove right down the East / west road just north of the harbor.
What was left of neighborhoods along the MS coast.. Note the refrigerators..
Nawleans would have been fine if the levee system held... It was the MS / Al coast that took the wort of the actual hurricane.