It's unfortunate how much of a risk people are willing to take because they don't want to be inconvenienced.
"City's mayor calls Gustav 'storm of the century' as it strengthens over Gulf" NOLA evacuated. And, the city survived just fine. Okay, everyone can go back home.
Gustav got hyped everywhere. A lot of people were hoping for the complete destruction of NO - not because they wanted to see people suffer, not because they wanted to see people lose everything they own, but because viewing such destruction allows for such a sense of awe at Mother Nature's power. Well, Mother Nature took a break (not that there wasn't damage caused by Gustav; just not the 24hour coverage that Katrina had.)
And now, some people in Galveston and other areas in harms way apparently are treating this like the boy who cried "Wolf!" I think that in the Gustav thread, someone suggested telling the people who refused to leave that it was going to be a category 8 hurricane, i.e. exaggerate the potential harm it could cause. Maybe the actual forecast had already done that?? This kind of drama/excitement draws people to their televisions, news stations get great ratings. Maybe they are exaggerating how bad the storm surge will be. "10% chance the storm surge will be 27 to 30 feet" - absolutely amazing. For the sake of the morons who are staying behind in harm's way, I hope that all the forecasts are exaggerations, intended to make emergency response less troublesome. Because if the current forecasts are correct, even the ones with the lowest predicted impact of the storm, those people staying behind are really screwed.