I've lived in bad areas but that isn't relevant to the post about not preparing.
I appreciate you explaining that about the elderly and holding on to their things.
Not exactly. I said the elderly *stay*. The poor and healthy *carry their TVs* (or anything likely to get looted) when they split.
And I notice I didnt address your other question about preparing, and I will have to spell that answer out as well it seems. No inference-drawing from you-- are you sure you're not from the midwest?
So, many people in the gulf don't "prepare" (at least as it pertains to hurricanes, people's individual ideas about the direction the world is heading is another thing and they very well could be quite prepared in that regard for all I know) because hurricanes are a dime a dozen. If they left the house everytime a hurricane warning was issued they'd never come home. Hurricanes are a way of life there, it is easy to become flippant. And the warning system cries wolf excessively. You learn there to discern when it's *really* time to leave, not when NOAA or the weatherchimp tells you. Sometimes you'll be wrong and stay, more often you're right when you stay. It's a bit of confirmation bias, but it's human nature. I live in California now, and we have earthquakes all the time. You'd be lucky if I woke up anymore, or said anything besides "pass the gravy please". 90% of Californians don't even have a single gallon of water or even a flashlight (of the ones I talk to). My house has been here over a hundred years, so I'm not sure anything is going to happen myself besides a power outage, but I have water, food, medicine, etc. I'm prepared for several scenarios actually, but earthquake should be statistically what I focus on. Interestingly, doesnt even cross my mind in my prepping. I think more about the Three Days of Darkness with blessed, wax candles, prayer/confession, window coverings etc and that might not happen in my lifetime, but an earthquake is sure to.
So, if you lived in the gulf your attitude towards hurricanes might change is what I'm saying. They've been in the news in the last 7 years quite a bit with Katrina and all, but keep in mind we did with a levee system that was nearly (and over) 100 years old in many spots and further, we hadn't had a Katrina-like flood for a few hundred. Flooding yes, but wiping out everything? Nope.
There was no reason to believe Katrina was going to do what it did, until it did.
My dad always evacuates if it's even 50/50 because my grandparents were typical natives who continued life as usual when a hurricane warning was issued. One day he woke up and his bed was getting sloshed around and floated around in his room. The water was pretty high and scared him good. I would say he was 9, or maybe 6. I forget.
Anyway, it scared him as a kid. He has nightmares about it. He says it still wakes him up from time to time because, even though nobody died and my grandpa laughed and picked him up and carried him being chest deep in water himself, for a minute he thought he was going to die. That sticks with you. Anyway, he evacuates always, but *even he* says he is totally irrational, acting out of trauma, and thinks he is over the top. My uncles, aunts, etc never evacuated, my grandparents didn't that I can remember.
I could go on.