[weegee]

Getting out of town would’ve meant leaving their “stuff” behind. Not that their stuff was worth keeping but it was “theirs”. To leave town would mean getting off their collective rumps and doing something different with their lives.

Some have seen that leave NOLA has gotten them on with their lives.

[Smokin' Joe]

As I have been told, many stayed in town strictly to get more stuff. Think back to the people leaving stores, not with food and beverages, but with TV sets, etc. They knew the inventory would be abandoned with the store in the face of the hurricane and gambled they would get to rip the places off. Houses were broken into, and places were trashed, not just by the storm, but the looters as well.

I recall the day (1960s)when the National Guard would be used to keep order and looters would threatened with being shot instead of having the police among them (looting while in uniform!).