re: Portable AC unit recomendations

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They "work" in certain scenarios. But right now your whole building envelope is under a vacuum and hot humid air is pouring into the home at the same rate its leaving out the exhaust of the portable unit

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I know how these things work and with the typical balance there's outside air pouring in even with the central system. My downstairs unit is a fair bit bigger in capacity than the failed upstairs system, it can handle this for a few hours a day for the weekend.

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The rest of the upstairs is miserably hot but my bedroom is comfortable.

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They "work" in certain scenarios. But right now your whole building envelope is under a vacuum and hot humid air is pouring into the home at the same rate its leaving out the exhaust of the portable unit. The home is able to "absorb" this sudden heat load since its interior mass is relatively cool. But a few days of running the portable and the home will not be as able to absorb the heat at the same rate as it comes up the outdoor ambient temp.

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If we're talking Louisiana or the rest of the Deep South, I think it's generally understood that portable ACs are not the best answer.

We're talking about 2 specific scenarios- supplemental cooling to a bedroom in a central AC house during the middle of summer, and emergency usage on a generator during extended power outage, ie hurricane. In which case, again most likely cooling a single bedroom so that you have comfort at night.
I'd say in both cases, a portable AC is acceptable. Window units might be more efficient, but most of us don't want the hassles of messing with that for basically a temporary situation. A whole home generator (Generac) might be a better functional fix for a hurricane, but not everyone wants to drop that amount of cash on something you may never use.