NO ONE HAD TO DIE! When a Cat*5 Hurricane is aimed straight at you for nearly three days what does a person do?
The President says EVACUATE!.......ignore him
The Govenor says EVACUATE....... ignore her
The Mayor finally says evacuate....... ignore him
the media repeats evacuate, evacuate, evac....ad nauseum..... IGNORE them.
The mayor should have made busses available and called the Govenor to assist. The people could have walked out to higher ground to schools, churches and shelters. Certainly, outside NO they have buildings designated and mapped as shelters away from the coast.
Those who refused to go and later regretted their mistake could have gone to the Dome. Was there not room for 50,000 more people? Why were the parking lots full around the dome prior to the Hurricane, if no one had a way out?
Why did all the poor , non-English speaking immigrants have the where withal to get their families out? Hundreds of Hispanic and Vietnamese immigrants were showing up in Texas on Saturday and Sunday appealing to area churches and temples for shelter. All prior to the storm.
The time to evacuate is PRIOR, not after a hurricane! Earthquake & Tornado victims, have very little time or warning to get out. Those who live in Hurricane zones are fortuante to have multiple hours of advanced warning. It really makes you wonder how individuals can be so taken care of by government that they lose their own basic human instincts of survival.
It became a Cat 5 storm about 40 hours before making landfall.