"If the locals didn't enact their own action plan to get those elderly out and instead left them to die, what's that called?"
Murder.
And the response from the President of the Parish was to cry all over the camera.
Not just the president of the parish, but the sheriff, too. I understand that the water came up in less than an hour. But why wasn't that nursing home evacked hours, if not days, before? The sheriff decided that wasn't his problem?