To New Orleans and those in his path:

[Julian Alexander]

If your government officials tell you to evacuate, I urge you to do so. It as we tell visitors to South Florida, if you stay than its is your own fault for what happens, we will not be liable for you not leaving when you are told to do so (Most Hotels down here actually have a clause or make you sign a document freeing them of liability for individuals staying during a storm).

 

If you are going to stay, then make sure you have at least 1-2 gallons of water per person and canned food for at least two weeks or so. Battery powered electronics or ones that you manually charge are essential (So are small portable gas stoves).

 

Make sure you have multiple copies of important documents and that they are in secure place where they will remain dry. Now is also the time to take pictures of you domicile (This also means make sure you read through your insurance policy and make sure it covers hurricane damage, in addition wind and water damage. Be aware also that many companies do not “cover” landslides.)

 

If you live in an area that floods or that is near large bodies of water, then I’m sorry, but there is a possibility what happened with Katrina may happen again.

 

That is all,

 

-Jules

[AFriendlyFace]

Hmmm

 

As someone who grew up in Louisiana, who has the majority of his family there, and many old friends, I can attest to the fact that this is good advice in general. However, I'm afraid it's also a sort of 'perfect world' situation. Attitudes are such that a great many people simply aren't going to leave. There's no one more stubborn and territorial than a Cajun who feels threatened by someone/something.

 

I was chatting with my mom on the phone a few hours ago. The medium sized town in which she resides is unlikely to take the brunt of the damage and is probably mostly safe. However, it's still out of gasoline and other 'essentials'. If that's the case what do you think the towns predicted to directly take the worst of it are like? Getting supplies isn't always easy.

 

Neither is evacuating for that matter. I live in Houston now and nearly everyone I know has a horror story from the Katrina/Rita days about how they sat in traffic for 5 or 6 hours and never even made it outside of the city limits! It's tough to evacuate if you live in a large city unless you do it very early, and frankly except for people who can easily afford the disruption in terms of work, school, and their economic situation AND who are also just plain willing to do it when things are still a bit iffy, folks aren't likely to leave early.

 

Anyway, it's great advice and I hope people take it. However, it really isn't easy to take, for one reason or another, in many situations.

 

Good luck to all who are potentially impacted!

-Kevin