re: Did anybody have family in/around NOLA that were clueless about Katrina coming?

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I’m sorry. I hope your mom did ok after. So many thought they were returning home, we did

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Thank you. This date has me remembering some things I wanted to forget. But yes she did very well all things considered. Her and my little sister ended up in Nashville where she passed of all things "Covid" on 1/13/20. I miss her.

I miss it all. All my bothers and sister ended up in different parts of the country as well.

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My mom knew but wanted to ride Katrina out like every storm before.

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yep - in June of 2004, we bought a house in Arabi - brand new and had space for my mom.

The Friday before Katrina, my husband says we got to get out - I was 9 months pregnant and we had a 2 year old - but my mom didn’t want to go.

So we went to my brother’s apartment in Baton Rouge - my husband cursing about my mother the whole time. Sunday before Katrina my mom called and said she went to my grandma’s in Metairie - my husband quit his rumbling and thank God she went to Metairie because we got between 12-15 feet of water in Arabi

4 days later she was calling from a Walgareens in Baton Rouge because she had no idea where my brother lived - but she didn’t know where she was either

And we’ ve been here ever since.

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The amount of people who did not evacuate was astonishing when you look back at it.

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It is estimated that about 100,000 to 150,000 people remained in the City of New Orleans, despite mandatory evacuation orders.

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According to 2000 census city’s population was 484k. Roughly 75% of city evacuated. I think that’s pretty good considering how many poor people the city has.

I stand by my assumption that more would’ve evacuated if it hadn’t been the end of the month

Yes.
Some relatives had fled a time or two already that year and were out of money and energy.
Waited until almost too late, but they did get away.
I saw a sofa on the rooftop of a neighbor's house after the flood waters subsided.
They lost everything, but survived because they finally did leave.
And then came FEMA.
Those lying jackasses...

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Hope it wasn't that long. NOLA isn't that big.

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I-10, I-59 and just about every other major artery to leave the N.O. area were nothing short of parking lots with traffic creeping along at 10 mph or less most of the time.

We had left but two good friends, close enough to be family, had decided to stay. The one from Metairie was one of the last cars to go north on the Causeway the morning of the storm. The other rode it out uptown near Audubon Park. He had a phone out and then it ceased. But that time Metairie friend was up at our house and I had found contacts through a gardening forum who had family who (being single) were forced to ride out the storm at the Corps of Engineers bldg outside the levee.
Phone service once lost was never restored. Post Office stopped deliveries. Water came as the multistory condo near the zoo drained water. Our uptown friend keep a huge pot of food heating on his gas stove and leaned heavily on things he learned in boy scouts on personal sanitation. He would borrow cell phones to call us every other day. He also cleared debris from his house and neighbors so it would look as if the neighborhood were occupied and would discourage looters. It didn't help when the California National Guard came through trying to sieze firearms.
He'd bike out to see if the water was still rising.
When forced after a week or so to leave he arrived at our house as the other friend was leaving to help a lady friend evacuate from one area to north LA.
Our uptown friend was stopped by some national guard as he was several parishes away from Orleans. THey wanted to arrest him for violating curfew. He explained to them,
What curfew? I haven't had electricity in ten days and the only cell phone I could buy can barely hold a charge for an hour. How was I supposed to know a curfew existed?
THey let him go, and I expect they could smell that he was telling the trutn.

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Our uptown friend keep a huge pot of food heating on his gas stove and leaned heavily on things he learned in boy scouts on personal sanitation. He would borrow cell phones to call us every other day. He also cleared debris from his house and neighbors so it would look as if the neighborhood were occupied and would discourage looters. It didn't help when the California National Guard came through trying to sieze firearms.

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Guessing he didn't flood as he was closer to the river?