Did officials cry wolf with Gustav evacuation?
And "next time" could come as soon as this week with Tropical Storm Hanna expected to head toward the east coast of Florida, Georgia or South Carolina after killing at least 21 in Haiti.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced residents could start coming back early Thursday in the wake of Gustav. But the first of the 2 million people who fled the hurricane began trickling home Tuesday from shelters, many grumbling about the food, the heat, the overcrowding, the uncertainty and the frustrating wait for the all-clear.
Some evacuees, particularly in Texas, on the far fringes of the storm's path, suggested authorities overreacted in demanding they leave their homes.
"Next time, it's going to be bad because people who evacuated like us aren't going to evacuate," said Catherine Jones, 53, of Silsbee, Texas, who spent three days on a cot at a church shelter with her disabled son. "They jumped the gun."
Emergency officials strongly defended the decision to evacuate coastal areas, saying that with something as unpredictable as a hurricane, it is better to be safe than sorry — a lesson driven home by Katrina, which killed 1,600 people in the U.S. in 2005, compared with nine deaths attributed to Gustav.
"The reasons you're not seeing dramatic stories of rescue is because we had a successful evacuation," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "The only reason we don't have more tales of people in grave danger is because everyone heeded the instructions to get out of town."
At the same time, a top emergency planner in Louisiana acknowledged that authorities run of the risk of being accused of crying wolf.
"At all levels, that is a tremendous concern," said Col. Pat Griffin, head of logistics for the state. "After one or two or three of these, I think the leadership on the local and state level are going to have to push even harder to convince the people."
With three months left in the Atlantic hurricane season, the question of whether residents will heed an evacuation order is a serious matter. Three storms are lining up in the Atlantic, with Hanna leading the way.
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