Quote Originally Posted by AdrianII
Nonetheless, eighty percent of inhabitants made it out of the city between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning.
Monday morning doesn't figure in at all. There could not have been any substantial traffic by Sunday midnight. I remember checking a webcam that evening and not a single vehicle was visible when I checked. Most likely it ended at least 3 hours before midnight. In essense, you have a window of about 30 hours total for the evacuation. That's not much. The easily mobile who understood the gravity of the situation did get out as a result. Others could not.

As Redleg noted: New Orleans is a special case like few other cities The closest comparison that comes to mind is Seattle...if it has an "event" related to Mt. Ranier, sections would be trapped in congested North-South corridors.