The numbers boggle:

4:21 P.M. - WWL-TV Reporter quotes officials as saying there may now be 60,000 people in the Superdome and that more people are still being urged to go there.

From WWLTV blog.

When you live in a disaster-prone area, don't get too attached to material goods that you cannot transport.

Try not to get too attached to disaster-prone areas. Better not to be there at all than to worry about how you're going to get out if you have to.

A 72-hour emergency kit is not enough in a major disaster.

One line from a news story caught my attention, "the water rose so fast some people didn't have time to put their shoes on." What the heck were they doing with their shoes off in the first place?? Geez.

Time and time again we are reminded that the best survival tool we carry is our brains.

Don't count on police or National Guardsmen to stop looters as they used to do. I have seen reports that they just stood there doing nothing while looters ransacked homes and businesses. I think these reports will just have the unfortunate effect of keeping more people at home guarding their belongings who would otherwise have evacuated.

Vince

I was a high school student in southwest Alabama in 1969 when Camille hit. As I watched Katrina on the Weather channel it was deja vu for me. You will hear this storm compared to Camille, but there is one big difference. In 1969 there was not near as much development on the Mississippi coast.

I was living near Savanah when Hugo hit Charleston, been closer than I wanted to be to several more storms and spent five years in Iowa where I learned a little about snow storms too.

Anyway, a few important things I have learned over the years are as follows:

1. Fill up the car and get gas for generators/chain saw when you first hear about the storm. If you wait until people start leaving you will face long gas lines and if you wait until after the storm you will not be able to get gas. If you are lucky and the storm does not hit, it is no loss. You can still use the gas.

2. When local officials say evacuate, be the first one on the road. If you live near water in a hurricane, do not wait to at least get out of low areas.

3. Keep food, flash lights and other basic supplies in the house all of the time. Check supplies early and restock before the rush. Keep some cash on hand. (In short, expect to have to live with what you have for a couple of weeks.)

4. If you plan on staying put fill up the bath tub, pots and pans with water before the storm hits. You will probably need it.

5. Have a good radio. After a storm you probably will be out of electricity for some period of time. A portable radio is your best bet to keep up with events. Do not count on phones, cell phones, TV or internet.

6. A few years back I had a pine tree on top of my house which did about $10 K in damages. ( no one got hurt) You can rebuild or repair. There is nothing in your home that is more valuable than your family.

7. Be careful after the storm. You have not begun to hear about it yet, but if this one is like the other ones I have been around the emergency rooms will soon begin to see a flood of chain saw, ax, broken limb, nail pucture and other assorted accidents.

The C5As and other big transports are really buzzing around here. what little military capacity we have left here seems to be mobiizing.
Last I heard Shrub has ordered Naval ships in to assist. 'bout time.

I think that many of the posters are being harsh. NO is one of my 2 or 3 favorite cities on the planet. I just can't make a living there. South LA is a wonderful place, and it does not surprise me that so many people choose to live there, and to stay there despite all.

South LA has a culture founded upon adversity. Many will die. That is the way of the world. The only truly sad part is that there are so many who are so impoverished that they never had a chance to contemplate any alternatives.

I have been thinking the same thing about putting an ax in the attic and leaving it there.

I have family living on the Gulf Coast, just a few miles up the coast on the flood plain. It wouldn't be a bad idea to place a small kit in the attic . This might even include a gallon of water, an ax, and I'm not sure what else.

I know it is absurd to stay behind when a killer storm is approaching, but there are also times when storms don't track exactly as predicted and people have little time to make good decisions.

Hope my post did not sound negative against the Big Easy. I grew up on the gulf coast and look foward to the day that I can again have a cup of coffee and begnets at the Cafe DuMond.

I think it is important for all of us to remember, " there but for the grace of God go I. "

San Francisco is built on fill dirt in Earth Quake central. While it is not as likely, New York City could be hit by a hurricane just as hard. (In fact Long Island was hit by a big one in 1938.) I seem to remember that it can snow in Chicago and I have heard the term "Tornado Alley" used in the Great Plains.

It does not matter where you live, nature can kill you. ETS is for eveyone.

It seems that when the chips are down, we are no better than our so-called primitive ancestors. When Mother Nature tears toward us, we must run.

When I was a child, I laughed because people used to think comets were harbingers of doom. The thought is still amusing, but I think even Neanderthals or Medieval villagers would have sense enough to run from a hurricane. At a certain point, instinct kicks in and tells you it's time to get out of Dodge. Our modern brains override that impulse -- sometimes to our detriment.

When push comes to shove, our structures are frail. Our buildings will crumble, as will our bridges. Our roads will wash out. Cell phone towers will fall. Electricity, the blood of modern telecommunications and most everything else, will fail.

The only thing you can count on is people's resilience in the face of adversity, and even that has its breaking point. Emotional strength has only so much elasticity.

-- Craig

There are probably a lot of reasons people don't leave. I have to wonder if part of the problem is that, depsite all the talking heads on the tv, nothing looks wrong. It depends on the hurricane, of course, but even 12 hours before landfall, the weather still looks fine. A bit breezy, but not out of the oridinary. There aren't any "run or die" signals. By the time it looks bad enough to want to run, it's too late.