Officials have determined that everyone must leave the city, whether or not they want to go, and are determined to use force to remove the approx. 10,000 stragglers if necessary.

“We’re trying to save them from themselves,” he said. “We’re going to get the residents evacuated and then we’re going to get all the criminals out of New Orleans. “

With fires raging in some buildings and houses and New Orleans in lockdown, the authorities said today that they made 150 arrests this week as they tried to bring some order to the streets.

And with the city’s municipal buildings unusable, the authorities today created a temporary jail at a local Greyhound bus station.

UPDATE: Just to be clear, I don’t disagree with this. The water is incredibly toxic in N.O. at this point, and full of bacteria as well. People need to abandon this place, for now, until it’s clean again.