Police from surrounding jurisdictions shut down several 
    access points to one of the only ways out of New Orleans 
    last week, effectively trapping victims of Hurricane 
    Katrina in the flooded and devastated city. . . .

    "We shut down the bridge," Arthur Lawson, chief of the 
    City of Gretna Police Department, confirmed to United 
    Press International, adding that his jurisdiction had 
    been "a closed and secure location" since before the 
    storm hit. 

    "All our people had evacuated and we locked the city 
    down," he said. The bridge in question -- the Crescent 
    City Connection -- is the major artery heading west out 
    of New Orleans across the Mississippi River. 

    Lawson said that once the storm itself had passed Monday, 
    police from Gretna City, Jefferson Parrish and the 
    Louisiana State Crescent City Connection Police 
    Department closed to foot traffic the three access points 
    to the bridge closest to the West Bank of the river. 

    He added that the small town, which he called "a bedroom 
    community" for the city of New Orleans, would have been 
    overwhelmed by the influx. 

    "There was no food, water or shelter" in Gretna City, 
    Lawson said. "We did not have the wherewithal to deal 
    with these people." 

    "If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked 
    like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged." 

    But -- in an example of the chaos that continued to beset 
    survivors of the storm long after it had passed -- even 
    as Lawson's men were closing the bridge, authorities in 
    New Orleans were telling people that it was only way out 
    of the city.