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The school buses might indeed have evacuated a few thousand out of the stinkin' Super Bowl, perhaps more, and if they had been rounded up in time - a big if - could have taken residents who do not have cars to high ground to the north and west.

However, bear in mind that no one Sunday could have possibly predicted that 80% of the city was giong to be flooded on Tuesday, making ground transportation impossible in or out. Was the order to evacuate New Orleans issued on Sunday, or on Wednesday as I keep seeing on the "Mayor to blame" threads? I honestly don't know.

Regardless, there's a larger issue that needs to be addressed. In the city of New Orleans, nearly one-third of all households do not own a car. Certainly, there are other ways of getting around in New Orleans, but when disaster looms you really, really need a car to get yourself and your loved ones - and pets - out of danger.

I made the mistake of starting a thread yesterday, hoping it would generate discussion about the dependence city-dwellers have on government-provided transportation. Most of the comments indicate to me that the posters didn't read the article by Randal O'Toole, an expert on topics of smart growth, rail transit and other liberal fantasies; rather, they wanted to vent on the undeployed school buses.

This hurricane is going to change hundreds of thousands of lives in one way or another. The bigger disaster is what's currently happeningn in American urban areas, where we are becoming more and more dependent on someone in government to take care of our needs. It works across party lines, although Democrats are in the forefront simply because there are more of them in power in the big cities.

Take a look at "Lack of Automobility Key to New Orleans Tragedy" and tell me what you think.