Just got back home in the last hour, we did not have to be gone so long but we had a nice cabin in the mountains for a week. It worked out well because we just got electricity back 2 days ago, a tree fell on the power line down the street.
I have lived in New Orleans, the North shore and now Picayune Mississippi, not much difference when a cat 3 or more is heading this way ! It cost $ and is a pain to evacuate, but after you see with your own eyes what destruction is done, why would you want to stay ? I would drive North and sleep in the car then go back if I never had money for anything else !
We came back two days after Katrina, and sat here for a long 2 weeks with no electricity and made due, and at the same time thinking every day how lucky we were to at least have a house and be alive!