Rich Lemert wrote:
Jay Honeck wrote:

I would have been in my plane/van/car/whatever, aimed north...

You are making several assumptions here that are not completely
justifiable. The first is that these people did not listen to the
warnings. There's a difference between wanting to get out of Dodge,
and being able to do so. This is also reflected in the assumption
indicated by your last statement - the assumption that these people
had a "plane/van/car/whatever" that they could take north. For a lot
of people in the city, the best they can afford is the public bus or
streetcar system.

Hindsight being as good as it gets, the powers that be should have used
the public transportation to get as many out as possible. I see lots of
buses (city & school) underwater. Some of the effected areas took their
firetrucks and got them out of harms way. We had a dozen or so staying
locally in hotels. Could they have moved the 100,000 that are stranded
there now, maybe. Some people won't leave no matter what, Dan Luke and I
seem to be from that lineage. I live in a proven home (at least a half
dozen hurricanes and as many tornadoes, direct hits and near misses) and
have it well equipped for the long haul. These people aren't in that
situation...