[SoothingDave]

You can call me cruel if you'd like, but as far as I'm concerned someone who refuses to evacuate a disaster area and then climbs on a roof expecting to be picked up by a helicopter is not a "victim" in any sense of the word -- he/she is a public menace who is putting other lives at risk through their own ignorance, stupidity, arrogance, etc.

As another said more better than me can, that is not the way Americans operate. We have compassion even for those who are in dilemmas of their own making.

Your analysis requires a prejudging of people. I know many tried to evacuate but returned when the highways were impassible. Others may have medical conditions that made travel difficult. Still others might have stayed intending to be a help to others, only to find themselves a burden.

We can't simply dismiss all as arrogant or ignorant.

SD

[Sleeping Freeper]

As folks were piling into the Super dome on Sunday, many said they were there because they didn't have vehicles or other transportation.

Some of the aged or disabled may have decided to take their chances by staying in their homes. I was obviously a bad decision. The estimates are that 80% of the city left with horror stories about the roads being jammed, etc.

It's obvious that there were a lot of able bodied looters who stayed, perhaps for that reason... I have not sympathy for them.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Your analysis requires a prejudging of people. I know many tried to evacuate but returned when the highways were impassible. Others may have medical conditions that made travel difficult. Still others might have stayed intending to be a help to others, only to find themselves a burden."

Excellent points, which - unfortunately - need to be made over and over again on this forum. Other factors which might have kept people from evacuating: lack of a car; lack of money for air fare or rental car fees; unavailability of rental cars due to high demand; disability; the need to stay with and care for shut-ins; and just plain old fear of leaving the (felt) security of home for an unknown destination.

[Gone GF]

Alberta's Child told me that these folks just need to look to their neighbors and family for help. Uh, wake up and look around. What neighbors? What family, in most cases?

"...he/she is a public menace who is putting other lives at risk through their own ignorance, stupidity, arrogance, etc."

Maybe one of the most ignorant, stupid, arrogant statements I've seen today.