I have usually been quite prepared for a disaster, consider the number of storms that I have been through. From Hurricane Betsy (1965) and Camille (1969) to more recent storms such as Hurricane Ivan (2004) and Katrina (2005), you learn that being prepared is always the best plan. For example:
Living in northwest Florida, there are not many routes that can take you out of a potential hurricane landfall area. You have Interstate 10 and US 90 and 98 that go east-west, but the only major roads north-south are either past Tallahassee or Mobile. And by major I mean Interstate highways capable of handling some of the traffic levels you can see during an evacuation. For New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana, evacuation routes can (and do) become over-saturated, and you can find yourself going only 80 miles in 12 hours if you wait too long.
If you decide to stick it out, you're better off having already stocked up on supplies, such as water, canned foods and other essentials for surviving the storm. Owning a gas-powered generator means also having some gas stored somewhere safe, to provide power for the absolute essentials (and I'm speaking of power to run the fridge and a fan for cooling, not your computer system here.) Oddly enough, cellphones will become useless as many towers will be damaged or destroyed by the storm, but a land-based line (the plain old telephone) will continue to be available.
Once the storm is over and you're stuck in that time between services being brought back up (power was out for a week during Ivan where I was living previously) you can try to get additional supplies. Some stores will manage to get back operational such as Wal-Mart and Publix, but with only limited offerings to the public. And you will have disaster relief services coming in such as the Red Cross and National Guard, bring in supplies such as bottled/canned water and MREs. Just don't count on them as your sole source of supplies, however.
Unfortunately, you also have to deal with your workplace, and depending on the kind of business they are, you might be required to be back to work within days of the storm passing. In my case, Ivan passed on Wednesday night and Thursday, and I had to be back to work on Monday to help in getting the worksite back up and operational.
I've moved since then to the Texas coastline, which means I still need to take precautions for hurricanes. Can't seem to get away from the Gulf...