[Travis McGee]

I hope that sooner or later the MSM discovers that New Orleans did have a written emergency plan to cover the evacuation of the poor, but that the idiot mayor of New Orleans ignored it, and allowed the evacuation buses to be ruined by the flood, forgotten.

The city leaders had at least two full days to use these hundreds of buses to evac the poor, exactly as their own emergency management plan called for.

Here's the southeast Louisiana evac plan supplement, most recently revised in 2000. Go to page 13, read paragraph 5. It states:

5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.

[M1911A1]

I agree 100% that the local authorities are not blameless in this, and are currently being given a pass by the MSM.

Doesn't change the fact that there are those in the federal positiions who have screwed the pooch, too. Part of the job means not making moronic statements about the situation, at the very least. Chertoff and Brown have both had feet firmly planted in mouth, lately.

[TADSLOS]

Abject negligence and leadership failure on the part of Louisiana and New Orleans officials. President Bush had to practically force Blanco and the mayor to act. By the time they did, it was too little, too late. Now they're attempting to play CYA by deflecting blame back on the President.

[Lawgvr1955]

I counted nearly 275 white (municipal?) buses, over 150 yellow (school?) buses and over a dozen of what appear to be smaller buses or vans in the two photographs. That is nearly 450 vehicles on just two lots.

That does not include who knows how many municipal cars and trucks that could have been pressed into service. Shameful.

[ForGod'sSake]

I cannot believe the Monday morning quarterbacks on FR, particularly concerning the response to the devastation caused by Katrina. I daresay NONE of 'em have a clue what it would take to get the job done. Like the whiners I've seen incessantly interviewed by the media types, not a word of thanks, but lots of advice on how it could have been done better.

Rational, logical conservatives sometimes ain't.

FGS

[steveegg]

Don't forget that, even IF Nagin had used those buses, because of the utter incompetence of the governor, Kathleen Blanco, in failing to get shelters in northern Louisiana open or talk to neighboring states in getting shelters open there, he had nowhere to go with them.

[mewzilla]

Talk about a picture being worth a thousand words. Those make me want to cry.

[WOSG]

For more on this ... see:

http://junkyardblog.net/archives/week_2005_08_28.html#004749

so the local official who screwed up are blaming the Feds for their own incompetence. Figures.

[petercooper]