I'm no city planner, but what about keeping several military cargo planes there to help evacuate, and what about having a 24-hour-plan to get everyone out of the city? One route for personal vehicles (both lanes going out), one route for mass transit (all city busses ferry everyone they can out for free), keep commercial planes flying in (but empty), etc.?
It sounds to me that they were just praying it would never happen.
" It sounds to me that they were just praying it would never happen."
That, to me, seems to have been their vaunted plan or something very close to it.
I think we can all agree that whatever plan they may have had for an approaching Category V hurricane, it was just plain piss-poor.
A military cargo plane could evacuate about 250 people at a time. As soon as the winds get to near gale force, it will be too dangerous for them to take off, and none could land.
Planes are not good options for evacuations of thousands of people ... In fact, there aren't many good options at all with the exception, possibly, of trains.