>>I agree with you, and they were allowing no one into the city.
That's certainly the experience of the Red Cross; they still have that up on their web site.
Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?
http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html
Perhaps the Red Cross didn't know the local cops expected to get paid for letting people in.