Posted on 09/02/2005 8:01:42 AM PDT by mc6809e
Where was the Mayor of New Orleans and what was he doing Friday night while the storm threatened the city?
The National Hurricane Center issues periodic forcast tracks for tropical storms and hurricanes. By Friday afternoon it became clear New Orleans was in harm's way. And by Friday night a direct hit was likely.
Yet the Mayor did very little until Sunday, when he finally ordered a manditory evacuation. Of all the persons most interested in the safety of the people of New Orleans, the Mayor should have been the most interested. Yet Friday night, when he should have been planning for the storm, he seems to have been missing.
Below are the forcast tracks issued by the National Hurrican Center.
AWOL
And who is now screaming the loudest at the lack of Federal response? Why isn't he screaming at the lack of State response? Louisiana is more than just New Orleans.
I think the mayor and the governor had better start thinking about new career paths. They're both coming across as personally weak and professionally incompetent. The voters (those who don't permanently leave the state, anyway) are going to remember this in 2006.
Precise landfall should not have caused any hesitation in preparedness. The risk was not the Cat 4 winds, but the fact that the storm was HUGE, slow moving and sure to dump unprecidented amounts of rain in an area at or below sea level with inadequate levee's. Where mayors fall short, governers should step up.
He was partying at the French Quarter's transvestite whorehouse.
This media circus and the latest mud slinging by the demonrats is laughable. This was predicted for New Orleans since Moby Dick was a minnow if New Orleans were ever hit directly by a major storm. Where were the Governor's plans for dealing with a major storm hitting New Orleans, and where in the H-E--L-L was the Mayor's plan for dealing with this?
Or preparing for the Southern Decadence Festival!
Still waiting for one liberal like Streisand,Moore or any of the other loudmouthed leftists to step forward. One labor union or liberal group to do anything positive. CBC is posturing on C-Span about nothing being done for the people of New Orleans because they're black. Totally full of rhetoric and totally devoid of ideas. The democRAT Congresscritters piling on and this is a State and Local issue screaming for the Federal government to bail them out again. The Mayor of New Orleans is a far cry from Rudy Guiliani and the left in this country can come up with nothing more positive than whining, posturing and finger pointing. Still waiting for one idea to come forth from the Kennedy, Leahy, Schumer, Durbin, Boxer and Reid crowd of elite limousine liberals. Wake me if these people ever put forth an idea or actually contribute something more concrete than hot air.
"Listening to him he dosen't talk like an educated politician, more like a thug."
Bingo
He has an MBA from Tulane.
Note to self: Tulane MBA degrees aren't worth the paper they're written on
"They're both coming across as personally weak and professionally incompetent."
They certainly wouldn't give me hope if I were stranded in New Orleans.
Sadly, it seems the people of NO, their local government, & state government prepare much better for Mardi Gras, than they did for this major storm, that everyone knew would come one day.
I heard the mayor whining about, don't talk to me about no damn school buses, we need all the Greyhound buses from all over the country down here. What's that all about? School buses aren't good enough for his people??
Exactly! Blanco had 66% of her Guard still stationed in Louisiana, yet she only deployed 2000...after the hurricane hit. She also has the resources of the State Police and the numerous LE agencies of that state. The fact that Bush had to call her Saturday an issue her state, the state of emergency before she even did, is a disgrace. Blanco even mentioned how it was Bush who suggested the mandatory evacuations on Saturday.
I don't recall when she finally issued them, but the fact that a cat-5 huricane was heading to NO and these people didn't have an evacuation plan in place for the poor and ill is a an absolute disgrace. Making things worse was how these people let their guard down after the hurricane passed. People were literally partying in the French Quarter, thinking they missed the worst. This attitude was shared throughout the day by even the local pols, who just continued to ignore the looting.
It's just common sense. Let's say that at the time they determined that there was only a 50% chance the storm would strike New Orleans. You have to multiply the chance by the cost of not acting. That amount would have been staggering enough that it should have prompted action. And of course, they knew the chances of such a strike at the time, were much greater than 50-50. I guess they feared if the storm didn't hit and they forced people to evacuate, that they would have been unpopular for it.
Leadership is all about doing the right thing, even if it isn't popular.
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