I beg to differ, just a little,,,,the LA state emergency plan says that as soon as a CAT 3 or higher is in the gulf of mexico it is considered a threat to NO and the officials should begin to carry out the plans,,,,I'm paraphrasing but I can give you the link if you need,,, please correct me if you find info to the contrary
That's true. The plans were evacuate citizens by bus, but the mayor chucked those plans out the window as recently as July of 2005. Stating in a Times-Picayune article 'You're On Your Own'.
Right, but if I'm not mistaken, Katrina wasn't declared a Cat 3 storm until 5 AM on Saturday. That meant they only had maybe 42 hours at most to get everyone out, according to the plan. And the plan said to let the lower parishes out first, so the city of New Orleans really didn't have much time at all.
I'm not sure a pre-hurricane bus evacuation was at all feasible. They MAY have been able to get ONE round of buses out, IF there was somewhere for them to go. So I can't really criticize Nagin for not mounting a pre-hurricane evacuation.
But some thought should have been given to keeping the buses and drivers in safe shelter, so they could get going as soon as the roads were clear.