Remember Katrina? There will be a lot of "better safe than sorry" thinking after that debacle.

As someone marginally involved in emergency management in a hurricane-prone state, I know public safety authorities spend a lot of time trying to balance the need for timely warning vs creating needless panic or a boy-who-cried-wolf atmosphere. When almost all forms of emergency preparations and crisis mobilization involve great expense and severe economic dislocation, and when effective warning systems almost always imply many false alarms, the pressure on these guys is enormous, and they catch way too much flak from both sides, regardless of whether or not the threat materializes.

So cut these guys a little slack. For the most part, they are a conscientious and competent group, and this is one area where the public's tax dollars are, for the most part, very well spent. Even the local media, not necessarily near the top of my list of favorite journalists, usually redeem themselves totally during storm season by keeping the public informed.

You can do your part by doing some of your own emergency preparations, and by paying attention to the "official" warning bulletins. Those jerks who refuse to evacuate when asked to are not eccentric and quirky individualists. They are selfish, pig-headed dolts endangering not only their own lives, but those of the people who invariably go in after them to try to rescue them.