I read a book, "The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes". It was very interesting, a bit dated. I believe it's been updated more recently but I didn't read that version. Denial is a real thing. Relying on past experience, but not realizing that past experience doesn't apply to the situation happens. Sometimes to tragic effect.
There was a story in the book about an elderly man who died in Katrina. Could have evacuated, his family did, but he refused. He died. The author broke down why it happened. There were a lot of older people who didn't evacuate because of a previous hurricane and they did just fine, so they used that experience to decide not to evacuate. That decision however was made with no longer accurate information: the previous hurricane, the wetlands and other natural features which actually protected inland from flooding were still intact. With Katrina, that was no longer the case.
This experience, assuming the people survive, may result in them choosing to evacuate in future. However, you also have to be careful about when you make the call to evacuate. Because if the government says to evacuate, and it ends up not being necessary, then people in general are less likely to pay attention next time.
Real example: tornado sirens in my town. They set them off WAY too often. As a result, my response when the siren goes off is to check the weather, then make my own determination if I need to do anything. I rarely do. My parents moved to the area, and where they were living if the siren goes off you get in the basement immediately. After a couple years here, now they call me. They have learned in 3 years that the tornado siren is not something you need to pay attention to, because in 3 years the siren has gone off at least a dozen times and only once was it truly serious. I need to figure out who makes that decision and write a letter to them, because they're going to get people killed at some point.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf needs to make a resurgence in popularity.
