As brilliant as sitting in one place in the same terrible heat without food or water for God knows how long. I'd be moving, at least well away from the toxic flood waters as possible, not sitting there waiting for help that turned back because someone decided to shoot at the help!
Do me a favor then, go east .. away from me.
You figure that you could just walk in any direction away from Poydras Street and you'd be on dry land in no time ... and there would be a McDonalds drive thru waiting to serve you.
I lived in New Orleans for 3 years. I was working offshore out of Venice when Camille blew through in '69 and this several orders of magnitude worse. They didn't leave because, after the storm hit, there was no way out. I'll grant that there were probably some that could have/should have left before the storm but after it hit, they were screwed.
Looking out the window of my office right now (Fannin and OST in Houston) I can see the folks that stayed at the Superdome offloading at the Astrodome - into AC and food/water/medical attention.. You'd be somewhere around LaPlace right now, if you hadn't already drowned.