Actually, a lot of people did...

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

- President Bush, September 1, 2005

"It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

"But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however--the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

"The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level--more than eight feet below in places--so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

"Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

"When did this calamity happen? It hasn't--yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City."

- National Geographic, October, 2004

All right, let's say the word (RANT)

( I'll say the word. I'll start writing letters. )

I'm a Boolean sort of person--I'm going to say Bush AND his cabinet.

What would you take?

It's an emergency, you have to leave fast--what would you take? Being in an urban situation, I tend to think of things I'm responsible for--SO, kids, cats, that sort of thing--and things that can't be replaced or are negotiable, such as photos and jewelry/cash. I keep my passport in a bank box, so it doesn't enter into things. I do have jugs of water and a boom box with 8 new batteries strapped to it, back in the room where I'd go hide from a tornado.

I got nervous and bought a small first aid kit when I got a cat scratch longer than any bandage I'd ever owned. Even then, I can tell I should add to it--but I'm one of the few people I know who even has one.

Here's someone who thinks about these things ahead of time. Jim MacDOnald is an SF writer, among other things, but he's also a Nationally Registered Wilderness EMT-I. He has a little list, and he's got one for Urban survival, Wilderness Survival, and basic First Aid.

http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/emerg_kit.htm

I think it's time to update my medical stuff, and build an Urban kit. Obviously we can't count on our government to send in help until all hell has broken loose.