I helped plan & design specific water and sanitary facilities afor handling cruise ships at the (then Atlantic Marine) ship yard across from the cruise port in Mobile. Atlantic Marine (I think has been sold and changed name)went head long into a bid to win the cruise ship repair business in the late 1990's and won. Long before Mobile was a cruise port (and as indicated a closed cruise port but every thing is still there just like the day they closed) Thus if you saw the docks across the Mobile river from the cruise port in the aerial TV shots, what you saw were flooded dry docks waiting for the cruise ship to arrive.
The previous responce was mostly correct.
Next, Mobile was the closest port with any kind of repair facilities and also it is just plain the closest port to Mexico's Cancoon area. To go to NO would require being pulled by tug about 100+ miles up the Mississippi river.
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