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There's no way you can get everybody out of New Orleans



Sure you can, and the resources to do it are in the city. Moreover there was in fact a plan to do just that (see the first post in this thread).

For a hurricane you only need to move people 100-150 miles. For a levee-break evacuation you may need to go no more than 25 miles in the first stage (though you have less time to react).

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if you read about what happened in the convention center because FEMA was two days late getting there. Women being gang-raped, and people getting robbed. Thugs literally having guns and shooting people.



It takes a while to bring in out-of-state buses, though not that long. The governor could have sent some in-state buses from less than 100 miles away and done the whole job in a day.

The reports of rapes at the convention center appear to have been false. There were a lot of problems, but when the center was evacuated no one said they had been raped, nor did anyone say they had seen it or had seen evidence of it. It appears to have been urban legend.

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It wouldn't have been any more expensive, and probably less so to have begun the rescue effort at a much higher pace before the hurricane hit.



Bingo - that's exactly what their plan told them to do. Sadly, the local officials ignored their prepared plan and did nothing.

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As for the buildings, yeah, to save those you have to start twenty years ago building a better flood control system in New Orleans.



After the Galveston'1900 hurricane every surviving building was raised 8 to 10 feet. I don't think it's unreasonable to require that structures rebuilt with federal money be on stilts or raised in some way that the ground floor is at least 8 feet above sea level.
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"If they can't picture me with a knife, forcing them to strip in an alley, I don't want any part of it. It's humiliating." - windsock