[Right_in_Virginia]

With the clock winding down, it may be time to support the mandatory evacuation order (which came way too late, IMHO) with an airlift.

[pax_et_bonum]

I'd support anything to get those people out of there.

I imagine it being me with my children....

[pax_et_bonum]

And I agree that the evacuations came too late.

[cincinnati65]

Not a bad idea. I remember one time in the early 90's, there was a mandatory evacuation for New Orleans with another hurricane (that eventually missed the city). All hotels and shelters were filled from Birmingham to Dallas and as far north as St. Louis.

Displacing roughly 1 million people by car in this short a time is logistically impossible. I'm very concerned for people being stuck out on the road when this thing hits.

[OwenKellogg]

Regarding the airlift...keep in mind that it took six months to move 500,000 troops to the Middle East for Gulf War 1. There are not enough military airplanes to even make a dent in the NO evacuation.

Assuming you could scramble 100 C-130s and 50 C-5, C-141, C17 types (a doubtful probability), you could only board about 15,000 people. The airport would be utter chaos, the roads leading to the airport would be too congested, it just couldn't work.

I hope for the best in NO, but an airlift attempt will create more problems than it would solve.