I don't know what would make people stay home when they were warned about the danger and told to evacuate.I could maybe understand a father staying home to watch the house and pets but no children should have stayed with him.I hope these numbers are wrong.
If indeed only 1/3rd evacuated from Biloxi, I'm afraid these numbers aren't wrong.
I hope so too, but I doubt it.
Nature's fury has to be experienced to be believed. Modern Americans just refuse to believe that they are poweless in the face of a Cat 5 hurricane.
Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Betcha that 99.9% of the people that lived through Betsy, Cammile, or Andrew got the Hell out.
Not me. I love my pets, but I would leave them to fend for themselves in a situation like this, without an instant's hesitation. As for the house: mere dross. Not worth even a 1% chance of losing my life and leaving my kids fatherless.
As soon as this thing hit Cat 4 with an estimated landfall within a hundred miles of me, I'd have spent a couple of hours packing up my important papers and photos and keepsakes, as well as a few guns, poured out some bags of feed for the animals, and hit the road without a backwards glance. I mean, I'd have been gone by late morning on Saturday.
People who try to "ride out" hurricanes are fools.
-ccm