This post is not about the book, so skip it if you are not interested.
Now that we are in the second section of the book, and posting about whether or not to leave, it might be ok to write about one of our own experiences. We generally do not leave.
We sat through a hurricane in FL, taking advantage of a very visible eye of the storm to run outside with the dog for a rest stop. We were lucky, having no broken windows, although lots of big trees came down. It was very expensive to remove them later. There was no flooding in our neighborhood, as we are a few feet above sea level.
When that big one hit Florida in the 3rd week in October a few years ago (darn memory, cannot remember the name) we stayed home in Boca Raton (north of Miami, south of Orlando, to help you non-USA folks), but not exactly out of choice. Almost no gas stations had long-lasting generators, as in hospitals, so that they just closed; we would not have been able to refill our gas tank to drive if we'd headed away after the storm was over. We and our entire town had no power for 6 days.
We were fortunate to have all 3 adult kids living elsewhere with their families, so food was much less of an issue than for families with little ones. One supermarket 20 mins. away was open, although out of just about everything, so we managed. Most neighbors had working outdoor grills, so that helped with food. The main hardship for me was no hot coffee in the morning, but I finally begged some on the third day from a neighbor with a generator. Actually cold showers are not much fun, but we were happy to be ok.
We decided on the 5th day to get a generator. It would use up some of our gasoline to drive out to the only open store, 25 min away, that said they had a fresh stock of them. People were fighting over them a little, but we got one, got in line, and bought one. Of course that night the power came back on. Since that year, all gas stations in our town are required to upgrade to better generators.
Our experience was scary, but nothing like New Orleans. Law and order did not break down in our town, although apparently there were some problems in Miami. Not all of FL was without power that long, but some coastal regions had storm surges and some people really had no choice about going to shelters. We were lucky.
Now back to the book ...