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Pardon me for appearing callous (I really don't mean to be) but shouldn't people along the Gulf Coast already be prepared for a hurricane? Being a New Englander, I am always prepared for a winter storm. During the winter months, I already have batteries on hand, bottled water, firewood stacked, and so on. So when a storm is imminent, I never have to make that mad dash to the stores.

Granted, there are always some last minute things to be done to "batten down the hatches" but those people are going to get at least a 72 hour notice before (and if) this hurricane hits.

Hurricanes often times just sit out there & no one know which way they are going & then they can move on shore rapidly. Hurricane preparations include bring in *everything* that is outside (lawn furniture pot plants junk etc.) Buying food that needs no cooking. The people in areas that have tidal flooding really need to get out at least 48 hours before the storm hits. So getting the house ready to leave it takes time, boarding up windows & such things. No often times people in the path of one don't have 72 hours.

You know winter is coming every year & you are organized for it. That is not the case here.

Living in the NE you know you will have some snowstorms this winter,The last big storm we had in Houston was 20 years ago during Alicia.The gulf coast is a big place and a hurricane creates alot of damage about 50 miles either side of it.Why stock up on alot of stuff you may not need.WE went three weeks without power after Alicia,75 miles inland from the coast.who woulda thunk it.

Most people will not act until a threat is defined and real. In any given part of the gulf coast, a real close-call (being in probable landfall area 24 hrs out) on a hurricane landfall may only take place once in 3-4 or more years, and being in the landfall area might only happen once in 10 or more years (I have had one in 8 years of hurricane-coast living), so this isn't something you have to expect in SOME capacity annually, unlike winter. I live north of Miami now, and the last real landfall threat I remember was 99 or 98, I cannot recall now. So no, it isn't analogous to preparing for winter storms. What if winter only came randomly every 4 years or so, and missed you most of the time? Without winter, or at least no winter within 500 miles of you, winter storms wouldn't be much of a worry.

FWIW, i was in hr. elena in biloxi in 1985; we didn't have power or water for days afterwards, but at least we had an intact residence to go home to. Some neighbors had parts of trees in theirs. We got to go to the shelter twice on Keesler for that one since it east a few days after nearly landing, then came back.

Adding to Ditter's comment "So getting the house ready to leave it takes time, boarding up windows & such things. No often times people in the path of one don't have 72 hours"

You realize that looting is a problem after hurricane impacts? When you evacuate, once the storm passes it may be a day or more before you can go home as roads are cleared, major power-line hazards addressed, etc. During this time your home may be robbed, and some of the preparation you were doing at the last minute was with this in mind. If your home was damaged, facilitating entry, this is even more likely.