"I would ask you to prepare, in the course of three days, to completely evacuate and rebuild a city of approximately one million people."
This is a false premise.
The NO authorities should have standing plans at all times given the topography of the region.
This article makes it sound like the thoughts of massive floods and terrible hurricanes were never contemplated before last week. Perhaps they weren't, but they should have been established decades ago and updated annually.
Correct. Everyone knew for decades that NO was at risk. Someone made a risk management decision long ago and said that a Cat 3 levee is "good enough". I guess they were wrong.