As a responder who was in the post Katrina devastation areas in 3 states, it was observed that the people in New Orleans proper were among those who were least prepared to deal with their own personal safety. There are many reasons for this; some demographic, some economic, some political dating back to 1910 and some geographical. There were more disabled autos along the evacuation routes in southern Louisiana than in Mississippi, east Texas and Alabama combined. Those disabled autos slowed the entire evacuation process and is one of the reasons that FEMA, military and other officials had a hard time getting IN - all evacuation highways were turned into one way highways using all lanes outbound. When traffic snarls occurred due to stalled vehicles, it made things all but impossible for officials to get IN by road. We saw this countless times on our responses.
Some persons in the far southeastern Louisiana Parishes are so dependant upon government to look after them that no preparedness is even considered by them. This is a major reason that the death toll was so high. Persons who live below sea level in a 'bowl' and on a coastal delta are among those who should be the MOST prepared. Hopefully, Katrina was a wake up call to both the local and state governments and to the people of the area so when another Cat 3, 4 or 5 hurricane comes calling, preparedness will be in the forefront instead of being almost non existant.
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