Actually, I have to speak up about this, and defend New Orleans about their handling of the situation. There are 1.3 M people living in the NO metropolitan area. When the storm finally made landfall, maybe 200,000 were left, and they were all rushed to shelters such as the Superdome. And yes, the city took it upon themselves to reserve most busing facilities for the elderly and sick, because if they left it up to private companies to help bus people out, the companies would have gone for the "quick buck built on panic" angle. Moreover, from what I understand, most of the people who stayed behind were too old and sick to survive being bussed out, which means that the Superdome was their best shot at survival.
The problem isn't so much that there are people who are too poor, too old, and who nobody cares about. The problems, as I see them, with evacuating New Orleans, no matter, what are: 1. There are very few ways out of New Orleans by car. The backups on the highways that you folks have seen plastered all over the news happen even when people are leaving the city for a Category 2 storm. Hell, getting to the I-10/I-55 exchange on a normal day outside of rush hour can still be pretty tedious. But there is nothing that can be done about that, because to literally build more highways out of New Orleans, the only place to build them would be around the town, on the gulf itself, which would render them useless before a hurricane hit anyway (to mention only the most practical reason). 2. Besides, some long time residents of New Orleans are really proud of their homes, and are deeply attached to them. We know of a few people who had the means, the ability, and plenty of opportunity to leave, and still decided not leave their homes behind. We're worried about them, but there's nothing we or anyone could have done to convince them to leave. For better or for worse, telling them to leave while admonishing that they couldn't come back to help clear out their homes for days was asking too much, at least to them. 3. Not everyone can leave, period. My husband's sister has childhood friends who are now in the medical professions and in the armed forces. Both groups had to stay behind no matter what because of the aforementioned people who were too sick or stubborn to leave. So a lot of those people who were left behind: they had no choice, and were staying for the most noble reason of all, to care for others. So anyone saying "it was their own fault for waiting too long" are not so much lacking conventional wisdom, as they are rather ignorant about the situation itself.
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The problem isn't so much that there are people who are too poor, too old, and who nobody cares about. The problems, as I see them, with evacuating New Orleans, no matter, what are:
1. There are very few ways out of New Orleans by car. The backups on the highways that you folks have seen plastered all over the news happen even when people are leaving the city for a Category 2 storm. Hell, getting to the I-10/I-55 exchange on a normal day outside of rush hour can still be pretty tedious. But there is nothing that can be done about that, because to literally build more highways out of New Orleans, the only place to build them would be around the town, on the gulf itself, which would render them useless before a hurricane hit anyway (to mention only the most practical reason).
2. Besides, some long time residents of New Orleans are really proud of their homes, and are deeply attached to them. We know of a few people who had the means, the ability, and plenty of opportunity to leave, and still decided not leave their homes behind. We're worried about them, but there's nothing we or anyone could have done to convince them to leave. For better or for worse, telling them to leave while admonishing that they couldn't come back to help clear out their homes for days was asking too much, at least to them.
3. Not everyone can leave, period. My husband's sister has childhood friends who are now in the medical professions and in the armed forces. Both groups had to stay behind no matter what because of the aforementioned people who were too sick or stubborn to leave. So a lot of those people who were left behind: they had no choice, and were staying for the most noble reason of all, to care for others. So anyone saying "it was their own fault for waiting too long" are not so much lacking conventional wisdom, as they are rather ignorant about the situation itself.