Then where did the MREs come from? Did everybody bring their own? Somebody stocked the Superdome with MREs before the hurricane. IIRC, it was the National Guard.
Preventing supplies from getting to the Superdome was never a good plan. Nobody was allowed to leave the Superdome. Buses were sent from other cities to evacuate them, and they were turned back.
Supplies WERE delivered to the dome before the hurricane, because they knew people would be there before the hurricane. There was enough for a few days. Apparently, the plan was to get the people back out as soon as the storm was over, and the state didn't want the Red Cross or FEMA delivering more supplies because it would encourage people to come back to the city and move into the dome.
Of course after the canal wall collapsed that was a silly thought -- and denying access to food and water simply to convince people to leave is a risky proposition.
The mayor may not have had anything to do with this. We are seeing now that the governor is a control freak who doesn't know what to do but won't let anybody else take charge.
She denied the federal government takeover, and when the mayor tried to make a mandatory evacuation yesterday she overruled him. BUT, showing her lack of decisionmaking, she didn't say for certain she was stopping the evacuation, she said she wanted to collect more information first.