I know the press is not anything special but looking at the main page of CNN for the past few days there has been the story of this family who almost drowned in the waters of Katrina. They put this HUGE headline on the main page linking to a fairly long story about what they went through, how the grandmother died, etc.

I am extremely sympathetic to their situation -- I obviously hope that I never have to go through such a catastrophic event in my life.

However, CNN continues to emphasize that "NO ONE CAME TO SAVE THEM", and that "THEY WERE LEFT TO DIE".... well you know what? Take your damn belongings and LEAVE! They live in a house, they obviously have a car....leave! They give their reasoning in the story for not leaving because they did not want to leave behind their pets....I can certainly relate to that, pets are part of the family. But why not put the darn animals in a car and GO?!

I guess I am frustrated with the fact that the media continues to point fingers (as does the gov't) yet a lot of the folks down there could have easily prevented a life threatening situation from unfolding in front of them by EVACUATING. I realize with pets it's harder, but keep driving until you find a hotel that will take them. Man, I made it from MA to FL in 20 hours, just continue to drive until you find a place to get some shelter.

I am not talking about the gov't response to this situation...thats a whole other discussion...but I am talking about people bitching about almost dieing, yet they could have easily taken themselves out of harms way by leaving.

Does anyone agree? I know it's not as simple as packing your bags, put the cat and dog in the car and leaving, but man, I think some people TOTALLY underestimated this storm....if I knew a hurricane was coming, or even POTENTIALLY coming...I would have rented a UHaul and packed up the most valuable stuff and left town.

I am not trying to make light of peoples stories and situations...it is a horrible situation and one that I hope I never have to live through. But to point fingers and complain about response when you could have left town....I don't know, I just feel there is something wrong with that.

Chris