[SkyPilot]

The mayor, the governer, and emergency managemant called for evacuations starting yesterday morning.

MSNBC reported it wasn't mandatory until this morning.

[Lokibob]

mandatory last 18 hours, voluntary 24 hours before that.

NO has had many, many false alarms in the last 50 years, and they are reluctant to force the city evacuated until they are at least semi-sure.

Already, there are stupid people saying they are gonna stay, cause they have heard this all before.

It is easy to sharpshoot decisions, isn't it?

[cwb]

Yeah...and I heard that Bush actually had to call them to ask for a mandatory evacuation.

[muawiyah]

Until the Governor said "do it", the mayor had no authority to make a mandatory evacuation.

In any case, mandatory or not, with the most powerful hurricane in history bearing down on the city, only fools would argue about whether they needed to leave town!

[BJungNan]

MSNBC reported it wasn't mandatory until this morning.

Thank you. I think that is what FoxNews said also. I did not think I had this wrong. It may not be exactly 12 hours - but with a 24 hour traffic jam what is the difference.