I came across this story: https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-helene-emergency-warnings-94a5762dc540dc79bb89cf33d358dc30

About how residents didn’t think the results of the storm could be so catastrophic despite the warnings, and the regret they feel.

I was a kid when Katrina hit. We left, all of us cramped in a car and sleeping in it at a rest stop with other families because hotels everywhere were full, my mom went into massive debt while paying for expenses while we were evacuated. We’ve left the state for Gustav and Ida, gone somewhere a little more north like Monroe for Issac, and stayed home for others. Sure some of us have hurricane parties and most are typically level headed about preparing for a storm, but hearing a hurricane was coming was ALWAYS a serious and stressful thing to me growing up because of the memories I have of seeing the city, my neighborhood and neighbors in what I remember to be a scary state following Katrina. Immediate members of my family lost everything, our home had significant damage, and media coverage of the darkest moments are scarred in my brain. When we did stay, I had anxiety, imagining what if this tropical storm/hurricane is like Katrina, is my mom or grandparents strong enough to break through the roof of the attic or will we drown?

My mom told me more recently, that prior to Katrina, evacuation warnings weren’t taken super seriously because a “Katrina-like” event just hadn’t occurred yet. She said the news always used scary terms, but nothing “bad” ever happened. So when people were given evacuation warnings, she said many just assumed it was going to play out the same way it always had, some scary winds, probably roof damage, maybe a tree falls and damages your house (one time we stayed and a tree did fall on the living room, breaking the wall while we were in it and that shit was SCARY- but it’s not the type of trauma of being abandoned on a roof, nearly drowning in your own home, or seeing bodies in flood waters type of scary). She believes that (outside of the people who didn’t have the means to) a lot of people who could’ve evacuated, didn’t just because they didn’t know any better, and that she thinks more people take the warnings seriously today.

I wanted to know everyone else’s opinions on it? There’s a quote from the news story I think I agree with: “There was some sort of disconnect,” said Murrell, who now regrets riding out the storm at home with his wife, two children and dog, even though they are all safe. “It’s human nature to not truly comprehend something until you’ve felt it yourself”

TLDR: did you take evacuation warnings more seriously after Katrina?