"Or is the problem the fact that many of those people would have evacuated the city when told to if they'd had the means"

No, there were thousands of people who didn't have the means .... these are the thousands that live below the poverty line ... the thousands of people the tourists don't see when they visit the French Quarter, these are the people that the "haves" in the richest nation in the world don't see, let alone understand the problems and results of poverty. Poverty is the lowest depth of human misery .... no, they didn't have the means.

sIx