They're probably busy shutting down and trucking everything they can somewhere else. If nothing else, they're trying to secure everything. Remember, Katrina screwed NO over because the local government didn't give official warning until too late. Here, we get the warning early, which means that corporate bureaucracy starts executing the plans that they can't do until the evac orders start to be given.
000 URNT12 KNHC 211600Z VORTEX DATA MESSAGE A. 21/1517Z B. 24 DEG 11 MIN N 85 DEG 42 MIN W C. 700 MB 2522 M D. 65 KT E. 070 DEG 27 NM F. 180 DEG 137 KT G. 075 DEG 09 NM H. 934 MB I. 12 C/ 3056 M J. 22 C/ 3062 M K. 07 C/ NA L. CLOSED WALL M. C25 N. 12345/7 O. 1/1 NM P. NOAA3 WX18A RITA OB 07 MAX FL WIND 137 KT E QUAD 1516Z
Rita has bombed earlier than Katrina for one thing and the track of the storm is 300+ miles west of where Katrina hit. Big corporations don't need the local governments to authorize them to shut down. They have their own shutdown plans. My brother works for Dynegy, the Venice plants got demolished simply because of the storm surge and winds, they have pics of two dead cows on top of a 40 ft pipe rack.