Perhaps they are looking for a fairly well destroyed place, thinking it will not be very organized and patrolled by LEOs yet ... to establish a base of operations. In the main, they probably do not require the level of goods and services that we ordinarily think of as "normal" ... a quiet place [virtually destroyed] where they won't attract much notice might appeal to them. On the other hand, if I had to guess I would say that St. Bernard, before Katrina, was probably 80-90% white ... not a racial gumbo like N.O., at all, and it seems that they would stick out like a sore thumb.
Welcome to the Louisiana Ping List, JDB.