How come when hurricane katrina was coming people didn't leave?

Question

Did they not watch the news? Were they unable to walk? Were they unable to buy a bus ticket?

Answer 1

Nagin and Blanco made no efforts on the local and state levels to help any get out. Remember all those buses submerged in the water? They expected the Feds to take care of everything and took no responsibility for themselves. Nagin's plan was to ship everyone to the Superdome and let the Feds sort it out from there.

Answer 2

Many of the people living in the Ninth Ward were poor and perhaps could not afford bus tickets for themselves and their families; also, there may have been no public bus service available to them, and they may have had no private transportation. Additionally, many people living in areas where hurricane evacuation is mandated are reluctant to abandon their pets which are usually not allowed into hurricane shelters. Another point: Hurricane Katrina did not actually strike New Orleans; it made landfall in Mississippi; it was only a day or so later that the levees in New Orleans failed and the flooding began. I lived in Port Charlotte, Florida, on the occasion of Hurricane Charley ( a category 4 storm which entered Charlotte Harbor and made landfall in Punta Gorda near where I lived). I did not evacuate, although I owned a car and might have, because we were not given the warning until about noon on the day of the storm which struck at about 3:30 PM and because there are no authorized hurricane shelters in Charlotte County due to the fact that there is no point in the county more than ten feet above sea level. We were all very lucky that there were so few casualties since the damage was widespread and catastrophic! My point is that there are many logical explanations for residents' failure to evacuate when a hurricane is imminent. Some, obviously, are rebels who simply believe that they can ride it out or want to protect their propery and belongings. In New Orleans, too, the local, state, and national governments were at least somewhat responsible for the horrific problems following Hurricane Katrina, the local and state for not having had an organized system in effect for assuring the safe and orderly evacuation of their citizens and the national for its belated and inadequate response in the aftermath...

Answer 3

Get three million marbles and try to fit them down a tube that will only accept three at a time. You can't use a funnel, by the way.

The roads were clogged from all of the New Orleans people leaving. Would you rather spend the storm in a car or in your house? Also, many of the people in poorer areas of the storm did not have enough money to buy a bus ticket, and some did not even have a TV, radio, or anything in that sort of way. A good bit of the people that stayed in New Orleans did not have cars.

Also, there was a constant fear of people looting after the storm passed. When there's no one and nothing in a house to protect it, robbers go all out. It's sad, but true.

Answer 4

The damage of the actual storm was not as devastating as the after affect - the flooding from the levees. If the levees would have held, those people and their houses would have been relatively ok. Being from that area, I've lived through numerous hurricanes. Sometimes you evacuate, sometimes you don't - hind sight is 20/20. The majority of the people that had the means to get out (you need both transportation AND a place to go) left. the people who stayed were the ones who did not have the means, or underestimated the severity of the coming storm.

Someone said "they expected the government to evacuate them". Although this is a snide remark, it is true. they did expect it, but it was also supposed to happen. There were hundreds of yellow school buses that were supposed to round up the people at the Dome (that's why they were told to go there) but they never came. I guess the captain abandoned ship and let the people fend for themselves. Good job local government.

Answer 5

Remember that some of those people were not in any position to buy a ticket to get themselves out of there. If they walked, where would they have gone? The real question should be why didn't the mayor of NO provide buses, designate places to have people go or be more forceful in his evacuation methods? Why did it take sooo long for the state to react and ask for help?

While the federal government made many grossly negligent mistakes in this situation, but the state and local governments are even more at fault by casually reacting to this storm and blaming everyone after the fact. Especially since help was offered and they refused to pass that unto their citizens.

Answer 6

Many survived the hurricane. Most of the deaths/damage was caused by the levees overtopping and giving way, flooding the poor sections of town(St Bernard's and Plaquemine parishes) where people didn't have cars or were elderly and sick and couldn't get out of the way.

Additionally there were a lot of people who wouldn't leave because they couldn't take their pets. Many had weathered hurricanes before and thought this one would be the same. There were many reasons and only a close minded bigot blames the victim because he/she is poor and black.

Answer 7

When a hurricane is coming -- things aren't quite so simple as walking or buying a bus ticket. I did not evacuate for Hurricane Katrina. I don't live in New Orleans. I live on the east side of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

When a hurricane is coming -- the entire coastline is in 'watch and wait' mode. If you evacuate too soon you find yourself running out of money in a hotel away from home and having no where to go when the hurricane actually comes ashore. If you evacuate too late you end up stuck in traffic on the interstate.

They began evacuating New Orleans very early on... It's a big city for a small area and we only have so many major roads in this area. The fact is that the New Orleans evacuation immediately started to clog most of our highways. In addition - folks who had been told days before to be on alert to evacuate in Florida and Alabama had already booked hotel rooms in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana and did not cancel those reservations when the hurricane turned -- just in case it turned again.

There aren't that many hotel rooms in these three states to begin with -- not nearly enough to actually accomodate the number of people who would have to leave if EVERYONE were to leave.

What this means is having to find a hotel room even further away -- a 9 or 10 hour drive to parts unknown... And please don't forget... you have to actually pay for these hotel rooms.

Yes. Pay. Don't be confused about all the talk about FEMA paying for hotel rooms -- you see.. that happens AFTER a hurricane destroys your hometown.

If you decide to 'play it safe' and evacuate when no mandatory order is given (which is what we would have had to have done to have avoided Katrina) then you will have to take off from work if your employer has not shut down yet. Many employers do not shut down just because a hurricane is coming in. This means lost wages. Then you have to book a hotel room for at least three days for your entire family.. and board pets if you have them.... at your own expense. Then you have to pay for gas and food, etc. It's like going on vacation! Can everyone afford to go on vacation at the drop of a hat? Er.. no.

FEMA will reimburse for hotel stays if the hurricane actually affects your area. But what if you paid for the hotel and the food and the gas... missed two days of work.. and the hurricane turned and hit somewhere else ? You see... this is what happened with Hurricane Dennis just a matter of weeks before Hurricane Katrina. A lot of people evacuated for Cindy.. then for Dennis.. just weeks before Katrina.. neither of which panned out... As a result they were strapped for cash by the time Katrina rolled in.

If you decided to walk to avoid a hurricane... where are you walking to? If you want to buy a bus ticket -- then you'd have to buy it many, many days in advance of anyone even knowing there is a hurricane threat to your area... Otherwise - everything is booked.. closer to the hurricane making landfall -- everything is closed. No bus. No train. No airport. Leaving in your own car is hard enough considering the bumper to bumper evacuation traffic and utter chaos.... Not to mention the fact that as the hurricane approaches many roads are closed and curfews are put into place and enforced.

And in addition to all of this.... Hurricanes are predicted. Only predicted. We don't know where or when they will make landfall.. and we don't know the damage they will do.... We only know after the fact. If we could KNOW what was coming - of course we would find some way to get out... But we don't KNOW. What the news media does not tell you after something like Katrina.. is just how many OTHER times they have told us all that doomsday is coming... That this hurricane is the 'big' one... How many OTHER times they have told us all to evacuate from Florida to Texas... And how many of those other times -- absolutely nothing happened. Instead -- in the wake of a huge disaster -- they adopt a 'we told you so' attitude and make all of us down here in the Katrina zone look like total idiots. :)

Thanks for the question!! I hope this provides some insight.

(edited to add a p.s.) P.S. The hurricane did not make landfall in New Orleans. The hurricane made landfall on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Check up on the effects of this hurricane on Mississippi and decide whether or not the 'aftermath' was more damaging than the actual storm.

Answer 8

They thought that they would ride it out and be lucky as they have been in the past. I think it was not only ignorance but also arrogance to think they could beat a cat 5. Which in fact actually they did, so in truth it wasn't the hurricane that got the people of New Orleans, it was in fact the decades of corrupt local politicians that failed them just as the levies did.

Answer 9

Perfect example of why libs have it all wrong. Those people rely way too much on government "programs" welfare, etc and have no clue how to take care of themselves. They EXPECT to be taken care of by the government no matter what. If you ask me, the buck stops with Mayor Nagin and the governor. They both should be arrested for criminal neglect. Anything after that was because of their poor planing. I hope people realize that for the most part, each state has it's own government and it is up to them to get the federal gov involved when needed. The governor a the time was offered assistance before hand and she turned her nose up at it.

Answer 10

many people stay home and board up thier homes, they invite friends over and party. You think everyone leaves everytime a hurricane comes through?