Mandatory evacuation ordered for New Orleans (Please keep this post - BUSH ORDERED EVACUATION!)

NOLA ^ | 8/28/05

[areafiftyone]

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.

[McGruff]

I don't bookmark many threads, but this one I will.

Free BUMP!

[TomGuy]

The plan sounded so good --- on paper.

And the politicians sold it to the MSM and public.

Just a slight flaw in it, though: When it became necessary to implement it, it only existed on paper.

[Where did all the HSD and similar appropriations of funds go? They sure didn't go into N.O.'s efforts to implement a disaster program when it was needed. Yet, I'd bet, $millions of tax dollars (state and Federal) were received by N.O. and Louisiana to 'establish' disaster preparedness programs. Where did the money go?]

[shield]

W ordered evac 'cause of the lackluster stupid Louisiana politicians....with extremely tough talk, I understand.

[woofer]

...but I wouldn't put it past the Democrats and the race baiters to hope for black suffering as ammunition to use against Bush.

I won't be so cynical as to second your concern...

But the bast#rds are sure using using the suffering of Americans to undermine Bush and the entire federal relief efforts by screaming that everyone drop what they're doing and rush that other stuff over there, where it may or maybe not, be needed.

From the state level down to the locals, I have never seen such a cluster-f#ck of almost biblical proportions.

Except in Mississippi. Haley Barbour seems to have a firm grasp of the situation and has his forces proceeding in an orderly recovery-mode fashion.

Kudos to Governor Harbour and the Mississippians!

[Dems_R_Losers]

My understanding is that in a state of emergency, government officials have the authority to commandeer any vehicle or facility, public or private, to save lives. The mayor certainly did not need to consult anybody to get those schoool buses out and start picking people up. But the city transit system is what I am concerned about. New Orleans has a huge transit system, hundreds of city buses that are bigger and safer than school buses. The transit system closed at 6 p.m. on Sunday and apparently ran regular routes the whole day. By Saturday afternoon, those buses should have been running 24/7 into those poor neighborhoods and taking them to high ground or out of town. The state could have ordered contraflow on the Interstates just for the buses. There are all kinds of measures that could have been taken to save those poor people and NONE OF THEM WERE DONE.

I am so pissed off about this I can hardly see today. This human tragedy was so easily avoidable by any local leaders who had half a brain.

[TomGuy]

I am willing to bet the vast majority of the poor folks did not even know that a voluntary evacuation was happening,

If the Mayor did issue a mandatory evac order, it was only AFTERward. By then, electricity, phones, cell towers, etc., were out. The people still in the inner city wouldn't have heard the order anyway. They didn't have any means of communicating with the outside world. Even today, the news channels are showing LIVE pix of people on roofs waving shirts and towels as signals for help. These locations still don't have any other ways of communicating with the outside world.

[pt17]

Good find!

[yoe]

Many people living in large cities do not have cars, it is too expensive to store them and there is no place to park them in the down town areas. I've no idea how good the N.O. public transportation is. In New York it is excellent. That said - even if they had had cars or buses, none would have been useful if the people did not heed the warnings days before and left then. Early warnings are a good thing but people tend to take them for hype rather than accept the danger they foretell.

Having a personal plan in case of a disaster in your town or city is obviously the best plan. Supplies, non perishable food, water and water purification pills, first aid, radios operating on batteries or cranks, flash lights, candles etc. and the knowledge of how to take care of yourself is the best defense.

Watching the thousands of pitiful people flooded out in New Orleans gives new meaning to preparedness. The displaced and now homeless population of that city will have to elect those who will return to rebuild their neighborhoods and homes. I hope that corps of volunteers starts immediately and are ready to go just as soon as it is possible for rebuilding to begin. Massive bonfires will be necessary to clean up all the wreckage and trash and the quicker this can start the better for health as well as cleanup – so tell the EPA to stuff it; smoke in this sense will mean progress is beginning and the people have work to do – the best medicine of all.

[Churchillspirit]

Thank you for posting this. The dems. are likely to try to make political capital out of this tragedy and blame it on Bush. Your find should be plastered on billboards and used in TV infomercials regularly.

Good job!

[kenth]

"From the state level down to the locals, I have never seen such a cluster-f#ck of almost biblical proportions."

I concur. It's just sickening. The governor blubbering on tv, going on Larry King, demanding apologies - it's a shame there isn't jail time for the governor shirking her responsibilities.

[Dems_R_Losers]

Since Gov. Barbour ripped Miles O'Brien a new one on CNN the other day, we haven't seen too much of him in the MSM, have we? Don't trash the President = no more interviews. Trash the President, and you get Cindy Sheehan-level wall-to-wall coverage.

There's a good reason why we are seeing nothing from Mississippi on TV or in the papers. It has a competent Republican governor who is taking charge and refusing to blame the President. And his people are suffering unnecessarily as a result; I'm afraid a lot of Americans simply assume that the situation isn't that bad in Mississippi because they aren't seeing it on TV and so are not responding with supplies and help.

I have two close friends in Gulfport who are still unaccounted for and I have no clue of how to even look for them or find out if their neighborhoods are still there. And I'm not getting jack squat from the national media because it's 24/7 about the animals in New Orleans and President Bush being a failure.

[FreeAtlanta]

This picture needs to be emailed to all your mailing lists with the following questions attached: The mayor of New Orleans blames everyone but himself, why didn't he use these buses to evacuate? Why doesn't he resign? Why doesn't he go into hiding?

[FatherofFive]

LEADER
LOSER

Fools elect Idiots

[cartoonistx]

The President is a good leader who encourages those around him ( and in his employ) to do the right thing. Then he stands back to allow them to get the glory and honor as if it were their doing. He truly believes, as Ronald Reagan once said, that great things can be accomplished if you don't care who gets the credit! To the callow and self-absorbed this way of doing business looks detached and aloof. The MSM want to see a Clintonian grandstanding, someone who steps all over the local authorities to upstage them and steal the limelight for selfish political gain. To them, that is compassion! But it ain't the way to get people to rise above and get things done.

[woofer]

I have two close friends in Gulfport who are still unaccounted for and I have no clue of how to even look for them or find out if their neighborhoods are still there.

I hope and pray that your friends are found safe.

[SlowBoat407]

Looks to me like President Bush, "personally" intervened to save lives.

Yes, but since only the wealthiest 1% had the means to evacuate, he was actually leaving the poor in NO to be snuffed by the hurricane. /DU elitist conspiracy

[Coldwater Creek]

INHO the plan all along was to do nothing, so that they could blame G. Bush, and have the feds do all of the work.

[LivFREEordie]

*

[Coldwater Creek]

That is Gov. Barbour, even if he has been a harbor.

[Coldwater Creek]

It was a great response by one of La's Congressmen.