Katrina: trapped by poverty

In the day or so before Katrina hit the city of New Orleans, after the order had been given for a mandatory evacuation, what was striking to this outside observer was that no public, organised effort was made to evacuate people.
Those who had the money and means had the chance to get out. If you had a car and a credit card? Fine. If you didn't? Tough. Those without were left behind.
That was evacuation, but evacuation laissez-faire style.
Now that may be the way it is in what used to be called Third World countries. But in the wealthiest country in the world?
The local authorities finally and grudgingly, yes, grudgingly, opened the Superdome to those left behind. And who were they? Sure, some people chose to stay. But many others had no choice: the poor, indigent, homeless, mentally ill, the old, the infirm.
Who knows how many in New Orleans made it to safe refuge? No one knows. There is ever reason, however, to expect that the number of dead will be huge.
In America, class, money, power, and race are tightly linked. If you are a member of the American underclass, chances are you are black. Trapped in poverty, left to sink or swim. Literally.