So why doesn't everyone just leave? It's not always possible to evacuate. You can be too old, too poor to have a car, too sick to move. You can be a tourist in the airport. You can be a storm-hardened native who's used to sitting out hurricanes in a Bourbon Street bar, watching lawn chairs hurtle by at chest height, barbequing everything in the freezer and drinking beer. Sometimes you go home to find nothing worse than a broken window and a power outage - if the storm hits at all. I remember being warned to evacuate back in 1998. Baton Rouge declared a two-day shutdown of all schools and businesses; everyone left work and went home to tape up windows and pack cars, and we got two days of muggy sunshine instead when the storm pirouetted into Texas.
And no, nobody has any sympathy for the stubborn ones who don't leave, especially the people who could and did leave when told. A rescue worker gets hurt or killed trying to save your sorry ass? It's better to just move out of state afterward.
So why doesn't everyone just move? Who's going to work the offshore oil refineries? Who's going to fish the shrimp, crabs, catfish, tilapia, redfish, drum, and oysters? Who's going to farm the rice and soybeans and sugarcane and corn? Who's going to man the chemical plants, deliver the fertilizer, ship the petroleum? Who's going to uproot an extended family and known way of life and move somewhere rife with tornadoes, earthquakes, and/or Yankees?
Her whole post is here. In the meantime, I'll be working on this.
EDIT: Now THIS is how you liveblog a disaster.
And per WWL's live coverage, people in Jefferson Parish are going to be allowed to go back to their homes for one day next week to collect as much stuff as they can, and then they'll have to leave and not come back for another MONTH. Wow.
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