A. Evacuation Time Requirements
Using information developed as part of the Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Task Force and other research, the City of New Orleans has established a maximum acceptable hurricane evacuation time standard for a Category 3 storm event of 72 hours. This is based on clearance time or is the time required to clear all vehicles evacuating in response to a hurricane situation from area roadways. Clearance time begins when the first evacuating vehicle enters the road network and ends when the last evacuating vehicle reaches its destination.
Clearance time also includes the time required by evacuees to secure their homes and prepare to leave (mobilization time); the time spent by evacuees traveling along the road network (travel time); and the time spent by evacuees waiting along the road network due to traffic congestion (delay time). Clearance time does not refer to the time a single vehicle spends traveling on the road network. Evacuation notices or orders will be issued during three stages prior to gale force winds making landfall.
> Precautionary Evacuation Notice: 72 hours or less
> Special Needs Evacuation Order: 8-12 hours after Precautionary Evacuation Notice issued
> General Evacuation Notice: 48 hours or less
The "Broken" Plan. A plan is broken if the basic premise is false. 72 hours is not adequate to evacuate and too soon to evacuate based on current hurricane track modeling. Too many cry wolf situations would ensue if it was slavishly adhered to.
Meanwhile you see the effect of a weak state government when it was truly needed. Louisiana is a bunch of local fifedoms knitted together. They don't have any sense of community like you would think between the major cities. Compare Baton Rouge and New Orleans to the response San Antonio would have for Houston. No comparison. Deep seated parochialism has the major players in Louisiana at odds with one another.