As I've said before, the mayor should know his constituents are poor and many of them rely solely on public transportation. OTOH - there were literally TONS of cars under water everywhere. Where were the people that owned those cars and why didn't they use them to evacuate? Perhaps, because the mayor and gov waited until the Pres asked them to evacuate and then didn't tell them to evacuate soon enough or strongly enough????!!!
IMHO those people know the people who would stay would include the criminal element and they feared their properties would be ransacked if they were not damaged.
They weighed the 2 up and unfortunately got it wrong.