"When asked where the blame should begin for the rescue/relief problems in New Orleans, MSNBC analyst Don Goure made the point that it was the city that directed people to go the Superdome and to the convention center."
well they also knew it was going to flood.
Out of town? the mayor had the transportation assets available prior to the hurricane; he apparently doesn't now.
Well, they should have provided adequate security so kids werent getting raped in the superdome that would have been a start...
"Where should they have directed them? - they needed a structure that would survive a class 5 hurricane."
They were told they would have transportation, security, etc., which the city never delivered. Basically dumped them, especially at the convention center.
NO, they needed an effective evacuation plan. Like using the several hundred schoolbuses that lay unused, or getting those with no other way out by rail, or by remedying any of the hundred other ways their civil preparedness was found lacking.
Where?
Totally out of the city to higher ground that is not below sea level.
Computer models have predicted this nightmare scenario for years.
Days before Katrina hit, the City of New Orleans should have been mobilizing its entire bus fleet, and any other bus fleet they could beg or borrow, to get everyone of of New Orleans and onto higher ground before it was too late.
Whenever a hurricane hits Miami, my aunt moves inland along with every other person who lives on dangerously exposed Key Biscayne.
You're right. I've seen a few strange comments along the way criticizing them for putting them in the Superdome. I have two comments on that which also gets at your comment about withstanding a Class 5 hurricane.
1. Using the Superdome as a safe refuge is a Class 2/3 plan - not a Class 4/5 plan. A Class 4/5 plan would be to evacuate those people out of the city because they knew in advance the whole city would be flooded for months from a Class 4/5 direct hit.
2. If their Class 4/5 plan WAS to keep people in Superdome (hard to believe) then they should have stockpiled enough water/food to last weeks for tens of thousands.
I don't see evidence they considered either of those points. And they had 40 years to plan for this.
Why couldn't these school busses be used to evacuate them to another city? That would have solved several problems. First it would would have evacuated people out of NO. Second it would have prevented water damage to those vehicles. Third, it would allow those busses to be used after the hurricane to bring in aid workers.
Going to the Superdome on Sunday was not the problem ... STAYING
in an unsanitary location for days and not having a plan since monday to get EVERYBODY out of NO is the problem, plus the lax attitude about looters.
They could have commandeered 1000 school buses and moved people out of the superdome on Tuesday.