I'd also suggest believing the National Hurricane Center forecasters, and acting accordingly. Those who stayed in NO & Mississippi (including my sister-in-law, who admitted this tonight when we finally spoke to her at length) really didn't take the Category 4 part seriously. They all figured it would be like every other storm, and things would be pretty much back to normal after 3 days. They even expected their cell phones to work (they didn't, with few exceptions).