Katrina Packing Wind of Nearly 175 Mph (Mayor irresponsible in evac delay)

BC ^ | August 28, 2005 | Mary Foster

[BJungNan]

Why did Mayor Ray Nagin wait so long. This has been talked about on FR since Wednesday. Perhaps that was too early to call for an evac...but waiting until 12 hours before the eye makes land!

[HitmanLV]

The local authorities in NO dropped the ball.

[BJungNan]

This is not long after the time he said, hey, maybe we should all evacuate.

[the invisib1e hand]

whoa, that's a powerful storm.

[Perdogg]

Why don't they just open up the south bound lane to north bound traffic since nobody is heading south and worry about the bottleneck further up north?

[Lokibob]

Where have you been? The mayor, the governer, and emergency managemant called for evacuations starting yesterday morning. That is hardly 12 hours before landing.

[Perdogg]

[TBall]

Hopefully they have been spending the last 20 hours or so pumping water from the levee.

[Lokibob]

They have done that since 4 pm yesterday.

[muawiyah]

Musta' just turned on TV.

Look, it's long past time to panic, but if you get outta' there now you'll get your turn to blame the mayor for the worst hurricane in history in due course!

[lexington minuteman 1775]

He's a democrat. That explains it!

[SkyPilot]

Mayor Ray Nagin (D)

Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D)

[Perdogg]

Didn't know that!

[proudofthesouth]

Maybe this is a stupid suggestion but why didn't he utilize the city's buses to bus the tourists who had tickets but couldn't get a flight out to other cities (Meridian, MS, Birmingham, AL, Montgomery, AL, Memphis, Nashville, even Atlanta) so they could get flights home? It would have lessened the number of people stranded in the city.

[SkyPilot]

The mayor, the governer, and emergency managemant called for evacuations starting yesterday morning.

MSNBC reported it wasn't mandatory until this morning.

[TBall]

I wonder if the could start some demolition's to relieve the levee before the storm hits?

[HitmanLV]

Because nobody in government has had an original thought in over 80 years, I think. You are right.

[Lokibob]

The mayor has said get out, get out, every hour for the last 36 hours.

[Tax Government]

Why don't they just open up the south bound lane to north bound traffic since nobody is heading south and worry about the bottleneck further up north?

EXCELLENT IDEA. I hope someone in a position of authority reads your message and passes is along.

[Engine82]

Anyone log onto Drudge? The picture posted on his site looks like Benjamin Franklin next to a lion in the eye of the storm. Does anyone else see it, or is it just my imagination?