Was there any time at which ALL roads to the center of NO were cut off?

[muriel_volestrangler]

Sorry if it's an obvious question (I'm not familiar enough with the geography of the city to know if the flyovers I've seen pictures of descend to ground level inside the city), or one that was answered before. I'm just not sure if there was a time when the floods did prevent any normal vehicle (as opposed to an amphibious military vehicle) taking any road to the Superdome, etc. If so, how long was it cut off?

[leftofthedial]

1. only if you were black and trying to walk out of the city

then they were cut off by the National Guard and FEMA

[rzemanfl]

2. Apparently the roads were only passable for college kids in

two wheel drive Korean cars.

[Roachman]

3. One reporter, who spoke on Democracy Now

was able to get in by driving on the levies.

I'm not sure what that means. I never heard of levies, nor am I sure how to spell that, before today, so this sounded very odd to my ears, but apparently it was a route available if people wanted to save lives, desperately.

[enigami]

4. There is always a way into a disaster

apparently getting out can be a problem, What, with floods, looters, and, oh Yeah Cops with guns manning the bridges.

[WePurrsevere]

5. The convention center could have been reached I believe...

it's near the river and the river is high ground there. Unless all the bridges over the Mississippi were destroyed by Katrina the Convention Center could have been reached.

HOWEVER the fact is that ALL of the places in NOLA were "reachable" if someone had wanted to reach them badly enough. There's absolutely NO excuse for the NG or someone to not have been air dropped or boated into the Superdome and at the Convenetion Center within 24 hours with at least food, water, oxygen, etc. If you can get reporters in there you can get HELP and SUPPLIES in there.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Yes, they could always get some supplies in by air or water

but if a road was open, they could have got huge amounts in - and taken people out in large numbers too. If the bridges were open (and I do seem to remember someone saying the route out of NO they used in the end was to the south), there could have been so much more done in the first 4 or 5 days.

[WePurrsevere]

8. Check out this Inter Google Sat.Map. I knew I remembered a bridge there...

- Before After - at Geology.com

In the above "after Katrina" sat. map that Rte. 90 bridge sure doesn't look like it went out and I hadn't heard that it had. The only thing I heard about was I-10's bridge.

In June of 2004 I went to NO for the first time in my life for the eBay Live event at the Convention Center. The group I was with stayed right across the street in a hotel there. Although I didn't have as much time or money to do the "tourist" thing (I went to help at a booth for a group I belonged to) I did have to eat now and then, went to an event at the Aquarium and I remember the basic layout around where I was. When I heard that folks were dying at the Convention Center and not getting any help I was horrified and livid because from what I recall then, and the map above confirms that, there truly seems to be NO reason help could not have gotten to them much sooner. Even with power lines down there's no reason... I live in the north country with occasional severe ice and snow storms and have seen how fast the power and phone companies can work and clean-up when they're allowed to... they could have at least cleared a path there fast.

[Karenina]

10. 1,000 locals towing 500 rowboats

were NOT allowed into the city.

[crispini]

7. The bridge to Gretna was always open, IIRC.

They just weren't letting people walk out across it. :mad:

[cthrumatrix]

9. yes they were "cut off" - - by FEMA