I would hardly call what occurred in NOLA before the storm anything approaching successful. Where were the plans for the hospital patients? There was no sane reason to wait until 48 hours prior to landfall to begin suggesting evacuations, and Nagin checking with his attorney late Saturday night to see whether he had the authority to implement a mandatory evac.
Yeah the hospital nursing home problem is one thats tough. The problem is during past evacs when the hurricane missed alot died ibecause of the transit. Because its rare that there will every be a fleet of a thousand ambulances on stand by I dont know the solution to that.