Posted on 09/03/2005 4:53:40 AM PDT by tellw
What's happening: Nearly 70 Greyhound buses, owned by Naperville-based Laidlaw International Inc., have been operating non-stop since Wednesday when the evacuation of the New Orleans Superdome began.
Why: Tens of thousands of people are stranded and Laidlaw is one of the biggest bus companies in the country.
Before the storm: Laidlaw, which has 65,000 employees nationwide, got into financial trouble in the late 1990s and emerged from bankruptcy two years ago. It has since focused operations on busing--some city systems, its 40,000 school buses and Greyhound--with better results. Profit for the nine months ended May 31 totaled $296 million, up 350 percent from a year earlier. Shares are up nearly 150 percent from their first trade in 2003.
What's ahead: Laidlaw, the nation's largest operator of school buses, said 500 school buses owned or managed by Laidlaw in Louisiana and Mississippi are also available, and the company is offering them.
"At this point we do not have drivers for our [school] buses," Laidlaw spokeswoman Sarah Lewensohn said. The company is still attempting to locate its drivers in the area hit by Hurricane Katrina, so the government will have to provide drivers, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
But they'll throw up their hands and say "What can we do?"
Good luck finding civilian bus drivers who want to bus into the war zone.
good luck getting the buses back
Ah, I heard yesterday that buses from our school district were being offered, however, the offer did not include paying the drivers to drive. That cut sharply into the number of volunteers willing to drive.
The governor could've had Guardsmen driving those buses and gotten thousands of people out.
"You want me to help with disaster relief? You got people starving and dying? You'll take any help you can get? Well, okay, but I don't work cheap. I want $25 a hour. With benefits. And I want vacation time. And a free lunch. And my office had better be a good one. And ..."
Alternatively:
"As administrator of this disaster relief effort, I am pleased to see millions and millions of dollars flowing in to help the people who need to be evacuated. On the subject of paying people to drive buses, I'm afraid that is something that we cannot afford to do ..."
The whole thing is just an embarassment.
Three days ago, I was thinking about volunteering to go to NO to drive. Then the gang warfare began. If is were just a matter of driving a bus of displaced families from NO to Houston or Dallas, I would be there in a heartbeat. But I am a small woman and fear being overtaken by a few animals that might sneak onto the bus. I can't take that risk.
I am going to volunteer to help with caring for people that made it out to our area before the storm. My 14 year old daughter is leaving right now to sort clothes at Salvation Army. We want to help, but are not able to risk our lives.
I agree with you. The governor and his staff must have been real busy playing with their etch-a-sketch drawing up various scenarios and not taking action on any of them. What we are seeing here is total misguided leadership.
From the top down.
Find any trucker with a valid license.
Lovely message that sends, the head honcho bailing out for Baton Rouge. Jeez louise.
I haven't seen photo #1 of Mayor Nagin with his own people at his own city convention center since the flood, even though the media has been camped out there for 6 days. Anyone?
He probably doesn't dare. Gutless wonder.
Let's encourage Cindy Sheehan to divert her bus tour and transport these poor folks. She hates Bush and many of them feel Bush has let them down so they'll have lots in common to talk about.
I would not volunteer to be a bus driver. They said about the bus that wrecked that someone on the bus was struggling with the bus driver.
These people are nuts! They shoot at people trying to rescue them, they shoot their own family member over ice, they rape and pilage, and now this. Disgusting scum of the earth.
And now they are coming to cities in your neighborhoods.
(These days one generally loads, then locks, but in the days of black powder flintlocks, you locked (cocked) then loaded the pan with a little more powder.)
They should put a few troops on each bus
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