James,
Let me guess, you are white. If minorities run around picking up their neighbor's stuff and putting it in their own garage they call it looting. All the people in New Orleans were just trying to make sure all the stuff didn't float away from the stores.
I wouldn't have left either, in your situation.
A hurricane, even a cat 5, becomes a tropical storm very quickly after moving over land. The problem with New Orleans was the below sea level deal, not the wind.
Katrina, when it hit NO, was a cat 3. Here is the saffir-simpson description for cat 3 (just moving across the Mississippi delta dropped the wind from 150 to 125 mph):
Winds 111-130 mph (96-113 kt or 178-209 km/hr). Storm surge generally 9-12 ft above normal. Some structural damage to small residences and utility buildings with a minor amount of curtainwall failures. Damage to shrubbery and trees with foliage blown off trees and large trees blown down. Mobile homes and poorly constructed signs are destroyed. Low-lying escape routes are cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the center of the hurricane. Flooding near the coast destroys smaller structures with larger structures damaged by battering from floating debris. Terrain continuously lower than 5 ft above mean sea level may be flooded inland 8 miles (13 km) or more. Evacuation of low-lying residences with several blocks of the shoreline may be required.
If I'm 15 miles inland or more (like Houston, for example) I'm staying put.
Let me guess, you are white. If minorities run around picking up their neighbor's stuff and putting it in their own garage they call it looting. All the people in New Orleans were just trying to make sure all the stuff didn't float away from the stores.
I wouldn't have left either, in your situation.
A hurricane, even a cat 5, becomes a tropical storm very quickly after moving over land. The problem with New Orleans was the below sea level deal, not the wind.
Katrina, when it hit NO, was a cat 3. Here is the saffir-simpson description for cat 3 (just moving across the Mississippi delta dropped the wind from 150 to 125 mph):
Winds 111-130 mph (96-113 kt or 178-209 km/hr). Storm surge generally 9-12 ft above normal. Some structural damage to small residences and utility buildings with a minor amount of curtainwall failures. Damage to shrubbery and trees with foliage blown off trees and large trees blown down. Mobile homes and poorly constructed signs are destroyed. Low-lying escape routes are cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the center of the hurricane. Flooding near the coast destroys smaller structures with larger structures damaged by battering from floating debris. Terrain continuously lower than 5 ft above mean sea level may be flooded inland 8 miles (13 km) or more. Evacuation of low-lying residences with several blocks of the shoreline may be required.
If I'm 15 miles inland or more (like Houston, for example) I'm staying put.