Depends, are we talking about smart white people or dumb white people?
There were smart white people in New Orleans, and smart black people too… they were the ones in Dallas by the time the storm hit. The problem was there were a whole lot more poor dumb black people, who figured that because they made it through other storms that they would be fine. They ignorantly ignored all the experts saying this was going to be the big one, followed their token black mayor who sat on his hands until it was too late, and suffered the consquences. 24 hours before the storm hit the mayor was already in blame mode, saying it was the government’s fault for not getting enough charter buses down there, while the cities entire fleet of school buses sat unused, most to be later destroyed by the floods.
And you can’t compare NO to any of the other coastal cities, because unlike other cities NO is surrounded on 3 sides by water, not just one coast. So instead of the first few hundred feet of land being under water the entire city ends up under water.
EDIT:
And there is another hurricane brewing right now, heading for the gulf. I hope it goes to NO because I’d rather see it hit something that is already mostly destroyed than hit somewhere else. Besides that, it may help win more people over to the “lets just say the hell with this place” side of the arguement.