Didn't they tell the residents of Staten Island to leave?

[laurend1985]

I am not sure but didn't they ask people to leave before the hurricane hit? If they did, why are they complaining about no food, water or heat. I mean, didn't they remember what happened in New Orleans? I dunno know, maybe they were not told

[bjl584]

It was highly recommended that the people evacuate.

But,
1) Some people have nowhere to go
2) Some people don't have the means to leave
3) Roads and airports became overwhelmed preventing some from leaving
4) Some people don't heed warnings and decided to stay

[disneysteve]

Last night, I got together with an old friend and former college roommate. He and his family evacuated from the Jersey shore and are staying at a local hotel. In talking with him, one of the first things he said was, "Affluence has its advantages." A lot of people can't leave. They can't afford to take their families and go live in a hotel for 3 or 4 or 7 days or more and eat out 3 meals/day. He left town on Sunday and expects to return tomorrow, Saturday, and he isn't certain about that. In the meantime, they are comfortable in a 2-bedroom suite with 4 people and 2 cats. And not everyone has family somewhere who they can go live with either.

There are also issues with how evacuated areas have been handled by government officials and police as far as who they let in and out of the areas affected. I don't have time to go into detail on that right now but I can elaborate later. Let me just say that some policies aggravated the problems and could have been handled differently.