Having watched the storm the past few days, I would have left last night or at the latest this morning when it became a cat 5. Sadly, most of the people at the dome are poor and elderly, and don't really have a choice. I fear that the dome won't stand (it has only been tested to withstand 130 mph wind gusts) and we'll lose 20,000 americans. My prayers are with those at the dome.
The meteorologist at Fox seems extremely concerned about the integrity of the Dome.
Was there no other alternative? Just imagine what that place would be like if New Orleans goes under water and these people get stuck in there for days? How do you go about evacuating a flooded out stadium of 20,000 people? What if the stadium loses power? Would the backup generators even work if the entire city of New Orleans is covered in 10 feet of water? We could see mass panic in that place.
That's not to mention the obvious problems you get when a mass amount of people are confined in a small space for more than a few hours - sanitation, crowd control and just getting the people enough food and drinking water. I hope I am wrong but I am sensing a real disaster here and it would have nothing to do with the Superdome collapsing.
As I see the crowds lining up outside the Superdome, I can't help but think of lambs being led to slaughter. All these people queing up like sheep, waiting for the gub'mint to take care of them. I guess they are used to it. Not me. I wouldn't go into that hellhole for all the tea in China. If I was living in the New Orleans area, I'd have been 200 miles north of there by yesterday.
The only saving grace is that there are National Guard troops at the Superdome. Barring a major disaster (like a blackout or a huge flood), they ought to be able to keep order. If the storm is not as bad as feared and the people are able to start leaving the Dome tomorrow, things might yet turn out okay for those folks.