You are right (I read that yesterday) - we should have given 10 billion last year to pave new roads and build rocket trains for the evacuation...but then...what if this was a Cat 5 that hit Miami, or the east coast? I bet you can not find any city that can evacuate a million some odd un-willing souls...and do it easily.

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

One of the problems we have found here is that a lot of people evacuate who shouldn't. If you are inland and not in danger of storm surge you should shelter in place. People who needlessly evacuate clog the roads, use up all the gas, and use all the motel rooms instead of the people who need to evacuate. During Hurricane Opal, some people sat on I-10 for 13 hours to go 3 miles.

Of course, since all of the city of NOLA is below sea level, all of them should have gotten out of Dodge. The parish was, according to the EOP, supposed to coordinate transportation for those w/o vehicles. I wonder if that happened or if the people just didn't go. But, even during a "mandatory" evacuation, no one can make you leave. I don't know why they use the word mandatory if it isn't.

Another part of this EOP states that all hospitals and nursing homes are to have generators on roofs or upper floors. Guess they left out the part about having enough fuel to run it for more than a day.

I have seen the no fuel in the generator issue...a clinic who is my client did not know that diesel would "get old" and turn to sludge...no power for a couple days...oops.

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

Definitely addressed the appropriate concerns for a cat 4 or 5 storm. As I read the plan, the shelters of last resort, of which the Superdome was one, were to be used for the bigger storms, once it was no longer feasible to evacuate the region/city as the case may be. Specifically, for those who didn't have the menas to leave the area under a mandatory evacuation, and when the situation made sheltering in place (at home) unsafe. So, it seems everything was going to plan, with the possible exception that the local parish captains are suppsoe to go around and get the remaing people out to the local shelter of last resort.

The glaring problem, in my opinion, is that the plan says nothing about stocking the shelters of last resort with food or water. My understanding is that the plan calls for releasing the people back to their homes once the danger has subsided, i.e. the hurricane has passed and the storm surge has receded. The implication I got was that this would only be a day or two, even for a cat 5. Hindsight is a great thing, but their seems to be a major disconnect.