From that AP/Breitbart report:

With a cigar-chomping general in the convoy’s lead vehicle, the camouflage-green National Guard trucks rolled through muddy water up to their axles to reach the convention center, where 15,000 to 20,000 desperate and often seething refugees had taken shelter.

Also, this is a nice bit:

New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass got a hero’s welcome as he rode down the street on the running board of a box truck and announced through a bullhorn to thunderous applause: “We got 30,000 people out of the Superdome and we’re going to take care of you.”
“We’ve got food and water on the way. We’ve got medical attention on the way. We’re going to get you out of here safely. We’re going to get all of you,” he said.
As he came down the road, elderly people gave thanks and some nearly fainted with joy. Compass also warned that if anyone did anything disruptive, the troops would have to stop distributing the food and water and get out.

And this is a not-so-nice bit:

Over the past few days, police officers turned in their badges. Rescuers, law officers and medical-evacuation helicopters were shot at by storm victims. Fistfights and fires broke out at the Superdome as thousands of people waited in misery to board buses for the Houston Astrodome. Corpses lay out in the open in wheelchairs and in bedsheets. The looting continued, and the police chief said even officers are breaking into stores for food and water.
“Our officers have been urinating and defecating in the basement of Harrah’s Casino,” Compass said. “They have been going in stores to feed themselves.”