What good would a mandatory evac do, without transport out?
By Friday late afternoon hotels in Shreveport were being booked solid. By Saturday morning, a mandatory evac would have meant people who could walk or ride a bike or taken some of those NO horse drawn buggies could have gotten to Baton Rouge. Of course, if you were waiting for somebody to take care of you (not just say those in nursing homes) then those school buses, etc., were your only ticket out.
Remember, the mayor told them to get out of town any way they could... and that it would be better to be stuck in your car than in NO. Which is why I want to know what happened to those folks in the traffic jams... especially on the Ponchratrain Bridge. Hope this is documented in those hurricane threads.