Haven't seen this mentioned yet, so I will join the discussion. This storm was a Eastbank event for New Orleans, not an Westbank event. There was very little wind damage from the storm on the west wall, the Westbank was relatively untouched (shingles still on most roofs), flooding was the problem. Since we are looking at possible transportation issues for those stranded at the Dome, see the image below.
However, besides plenty of buses (shown below), there were many water towers that were unaffected, tons of trucking centers with available trucks (hotwire if you need too) and supplies in warehouses that had a COMPLETELY DRY ROUTE TO THE DOME! Why didn't the Mayor/Governor use the resources available?
What I'm wondering is this.
If those trucks had a dry route TO the Dome, couldn't that same dry route be used to truck people FROM the dome? IS that the bridge police would not allow folks to cross?
Looks like the reason was to keep the looters out of the dry and more affluent (I assume more affluent) neighborhood.