Are these people too good for school buses?
Is assistance only worthwhile if if comes from the private sector?
Or, is it that to try to use the school buses would expose the incompetence of local authorities to move these once perfectly serviceable vehicles to higher ground. Or, better yet, have used the school buses BEFORE the flooding to evacuate PEOPLE to higher ground.
This picture and the interview will be Nagin's death in politics.
For Gods sake they should be using trucks, busses, anything that can roll out of town.
THAT says it all about this turd of a mayor. If I see much more Bush bashing I'm about to riot and create mayhem in my own hood.
But if these buses had been used to evacuate people, he couldn't ask for the Feds to provide aid to replace all of the school buses ruined by the flooding.
He really said that??
You gotta be $#!++in me. He actually got caught on tape saying that??? He has more dead peoples' blood on his hands than anyone. STUPID SOB, POS.
It's a shame that misinformation can become fact if it's repeated enough times...here's a few corrections if anyone should care....the caption under the photo should read
"the floodwater is the result of the unexpected breaks in the levees, which were damaged by Hurricane Kristina"
This was a two part disaster that started out at as a cat 4 hurricane...on 27aug, in preparation for it's arrival,the mayor called for voluntary evacuations, the governor requested federal assistance and the president declared a state of emergency. on 28aug, the governor requested military troops from new mexico, the mayor announced mandatory evacuations, and the superdome would be used as an emergency shelter. for those needing the shelter, they were advised to bring water, food, clothing etc. for 3-4 days. it's pretty clear to me that there was a plan and it was being activated...
so, the hurricane hits on 29aug, and the superdome is seriously damaged...the next day, before people can be moved out of the superdome to other places(by school busses?), the levees break and the city is 80% underwater...now the superdome evacuees are stranded. wednesday and thursday pass without any assistance and by friday the mayor lashes out...this is the ACTUAL quote if anyone is interested...
NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.
I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."
That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.
the mayor is trying to get across that the size of the catastrophe is so large that school busses won't be enough,and he needs much more help...instead, you folks misquote him just enough to completely change what he was trying to say...
if you watched any news in the last 2 days, you will see there are still people stranded because of the flooding, but they continue to refuse to leave. how can you blame the mayor, or governor or the president or fema for the bad choices that were made by the private citizens? unfortunately, many of them are/were poor and sick and couldn't/wouldn't heed the warnings and suggestions of the people trying to help them...
I find it interesting that no one has mentioned that a huge majority of the populationd DID heed the mayor's announcements and left town...
so maybe those busses were going to be used to round up the people after the hurricane that refused to leave their homes before it hit..or maybe they were going to be used to evacuate the patients in the local hospitals if enough damage was sustained from the hurricane....i'm sure no one expected that most of the city would be 5-15ft. underwater for days afterward. the city had planned - once again-for a hurricane, but no one (not even fema) was prepared for the catastrophic flooding.
until we've had to make these last minute, ometimes no-win decisions, maybe we should lighten up on the armchair quarterbacking and go help our fellow neighbors...
Hmmm. School Buses are payed for by the taxpayers, yes? Why are they an unacceptable means of rescue for those same taxpayers. I'm guessing many who didn't leave for monitary reasons would have gladly taken a seat on a school bus if it took them out of the path of Katrina.