Did the story mention that the Bridge is ALWAYS Closed when the area is under a Hurricane Warning and the storm is approaching the city?Then WTH was with this?:
He added that the small town, which he called "a bedroom community" for the city of New Orleans, would have been overwhelmed by the influx. "There was no food, water or shelter" in Gretna City, Lawson said. "We did not have the wherewithal to deal with these people. If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."
He is talking about after the storm.
After a storm the bridges must be inspected.
Foot traffic across a causes a bridge to carry a weight load which is greater than vehicle traffic.
Even if you were to get all the people across the bridge how would you control them once on the West Bank?