Re: I'd like to qualify this statement by saying I do NOT know much about Katrina, but my
An evacuation was announced, but it was do it yourself for the most part - if you didn't have a car and a place to go, you were fucked. People didn't rnadomly end up in the Superdome; it was the official shelter-in-place location for people who were unable to evacuate. However, once the small amount of stored supplies were used up, no more were brought in, despite there being land access to central New Orleans the entire time (I know people that, after watching FEMA and the military do nothing to bring in supplies, packed up trucks and cars and drove to NO themselves.)
And when starving, dehydrated people tried to leave on foot, after days stranded on overpasses and in the convention center, they were turned back by police with shotguns and dogs. White hotel guests on the other hand were escorted out.