Quote:
Nagin issued a mandatory evacuation order on Sunday with a Cat 4 hurricane a day away. Every study that I've seen says it takes at least 72 hours to evacuate the 400,000+ residents of New Orleans.

Unfortunately, 72 hours before landfall was Friday morning, when it was neither Category 4 nor headed for New Orleans. NHC's landfall forecast wandered substantially westwards over time: 72 hours before landfall, Katrina was headed to the Florida panhandle (hit Stop and advance to Frame 12), as a Category 1.

Peter