While we put soy center appliances up on blocks, we were well aware that if this hurricane hit us with category 5 winds and sea surge, our office and soy center would end up somewhere out beyond the cayes with the barracuda and conch. As I drove through town that afternoon, I thought there might not be much left of Punta Gorda in a couple days. Most houses are low and made of wood. Most people were not planning to go anywhere. They would wait it out.
Poor people are more fatalistic about death than people of means.
I remember when we had a Plenty office in Washington, DC and Three Mile Island was having meltdown of unknown proportions. We were close enough to Harrisburg that we were aware that if she blew, we would be in radiation soup. We had all our vehicles' gas tanks topped off, ready to flee. Our neighbors, on the other hand, mostly African Americans and Mexican immigrants, ignored the excitement and went about their business as usual. If anything, they seemed to party a bit louder and later into the night, but otherwise, they ignored the information that kept us tuned in to the radio on the edge of our seats.