Recent events have pointed out that at least some of my planning assumptions need to be rethought. Here are some of the changes

1. I'm going assume that my family will be without any sort of help for 7-10 days.

2. This means more food, but mostly more water -- 40 liters minimum, stored in 5 gal and 2 L containers.

3. We may have to self-rescue (walk out) after a period of shelter-in-place.

4. More planning for the pets; stored food, water, leashes and kennels for transport

5. Lots more training

TRO

I believe the original idea behind the 72 hour kit and the .gov recomendation was because they plan to be there within 72 hours to rescue you. I think this would normally be the case from looking at other disasters, this one was just larger than they could handle.
Some things I noticed from the NO mess, people didn;t have their ID's with them and it was needed to get through the checkpoints. I have seen many people who take their wellet out of their pocket and keep it in their car, desk drawer, whatever. You should always keep your wallet with you, it should be the first part of your EDC and should have the most basic ID, cash, credit/bank cards.
People were without clothing and shoes after they evacuated. I'm thinking of buying and extra pair of shoes and clothes and putting under my bed so if I do get caught by surprise I can grab them and have clothing if I have to exit via the window or roof. My cell phone, wallet, leatherman, etc all stay on the nightstand where I sleep so they are ready to go already.
5 gallon jugs are hard to carry if you need to bug out. I took an old backpack and filled it full of small bottles of water and keepit handy now so if I do have to bug out I can grab it and go. This is in addition to my normal edc/bob because I realized I didn't have enought water. I plan to rotate these bottles, put the new in the bag and drink what was in the bag.

I plan on definitely stockpiling more water.

Though some people were unable to leave (sick, elderly, no transportation, etc.), a good number of people evacuated New Orleans and the surrounding areas before the storm hit.

The more and more I see about the hurricane and its destruction, the more I think I'd probably hit the road. Not just because of Mother Nature herself, but also the unpredictable chaos afterwards.

Katrina has been a swift kick-in-the-butt reminder to finally get my important paperwork and documents together, and waterproofed.

I agree with you, TRO. I'm moving towards the same modifications, with these additions:
1)I'm looking into an inexpensive storage building (actually, 1/2 unit) on my most-probable evacuation route. There I'll probably keep supplemental (even duplicate) supplies.
2)I bought the Eton-Grundig 300 radio, which can also charge cell phones.
3)I already use an on-line data backup service which automatically uploads designated files to two remote storage servers (East coast and West coast). I've scanned into a folder (and this gets stored here, and remotely) the following:
a)digital photographs, in some detail, of my home and office structure and contents.
b)important documents such as insurance records, car titles, home title, our wills, and advance medical directives.
c)an abreviated medical records file.

I have contact persons in a remote location who can access this online storage if necessary.

We have a phone net for family ( who to call if some or all of us are out of our homes). Our contact is out of state.

I'd also back-up your most important files to CD and store a copy in a safe deposit box, in your pack and mailed to a relative in a distant state.

tro

"3)I already use an on-line data backup service which automatically uploads designated files to two remote storage servers (East coast and West coast)."

I've never thought about this. I've heard of these services and discounted them for fear of my private data being exposed, but your idea of photos of your house and contents is a great idea. And for private but critical data, why not encrypt it before uploading? Don't know why that thought never came to me.

Can you recommend a particular service provider?

Sure. And it's free.

Google's Gmail. Get an account, and mail yourself the encrypted zip file. Done. I think they're offering, like, 2 gigabytes of storage now.

I have invites, if that's still necessary. I thought I read where anyone could sign up though.

I think I read someplace that Google is now the largest owner of computer capacity on the planet, haveing outstripped Microsoft. Amazing. I'm doing the off-line thing. It's too good not to do.

Simplest way to remotely back up moderate amounts of data is sign up for some of the free email accounts that give you 1-2 GB of storage. Just encrypt the files and mail them to yourself.

This has also changed my thinking as well. Primarily, I'm going to pay more attention to a bug-out scenario.

While my primary approach to most disasters would be still be to SIP - even if my home was destroyed, I admit I more or less (mentally) dismissed the possibility that I might have to leave.

While we are in an earthquake zone, I'm not particularly close to the coast, or a flood zone or a potential lahar flow, etc, in the end, I have to remind myself that there is always a possibility of something you weren't expecting (maybe downwind from a chemical spill or something) and there is always the possibility you will be ordered out.

So, I think I'm going to rework things and do more bugout planning. I'll probably set a time limit for getting things loaded up. Probably a couple of cases that can be strapped to the Jeep and go.

I think I'm also going to put a bit more emphasis on self defense. I've always kept this in mind, but it is a reminder how easily things can get out of hand.

Also, I'm probably going to look more at insurance and electronic (portable) copies of importaint records.

-john