Presumably the mandatory evacuation would have kicked in, you know, the EVACUATION PLAN. Which may have involved, say, 1500 soon to be submerged school busses for people who don't have transportation.
In Pensacola during the last year we have learned some very hard lessons. One of those facts is that unless you leave at least three days before the storm hits you have a very good chance of being stuck on he highway, The gas stations don't carry enough gas for mass evacuations.If those buses had been caught out on the highway during the storm the occupants would have been in grave peril.
There is no excuse for FEMA's failure to airdrop food and water into New Orleans. The administration is criminally negligent for their failures.
The only bright spot the Federal Governments response to the disaster is in the Department of Transportation. By Wednesday they were convoying huge concrete bridge beams toward New Orleans. They were able to find the materials and organize the convoys within two days but FEMA couldn't even manage to ask the Army to airdrop food and water.
That is criminal negligence.