A city evacuated

The evacuation of New Orleans, a city of 1.3 million, tells the scale of the destruction and the pettiness of some of the moaning about disaster relief. The Interdictor reports "It looks like their are more reporters on the street now than regular civilians... The city really does look like a ghost town." I can't think of a single evacuation of an entire modern city, nor debates about whether it is worth rehabilitating that city. The scale of destruction is that of Rome sacking Carthage, and as if salt were once again being spread on the fields...