Hubby and I were discussing that last night. Mandatory evac by the city should have allowed for use of the CITY'S school buses to get everyone out who did not have means to do so on their own. That is the ONE thing in hindsight I have been critical about, as much as I don't know not living there I can't speak for any other local measures. They had that option and I didn't see them using it in any news coverage.
They could have coordinated with other cities like Alexandria, Shreveport, Lafayette, etc to use their school and city buses and shuttled people from NO to BR then picked up from there and the other cities busses take them to the designated shelters. That is of course if there would have been a plan to impliment.
the Times picyune had a lengthy article on what could happen with a significant hurricane, and evacuation was discussed. One problem with using school buses was there were not enough and not enough drivers...obviously more planning could have been taken but wasn't it was not like this disaster was not thought about before hand.
lengthy article here : "WASHING AWAY":
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/