My hero is a bus thief - Houston Chronicle (Priceless Photo)

Houston Chronicle ^ | Sept. 1, 2005, 10:29PM | By RICK CASEY

[joinedafterattack]

"When he arrived at the Astrodome about 10 p.m. Wednesday, 20-year-old Jabbar Gibson modestly confessed that he had commandeered a school bus in New Orleans, then picked up about 70 passengers before heading out for the 13-hour trek to Houston." <!-- DIV.b2 { margin: .75em 0px; } -->

Jabbar Gibson rescues NO citizens on 8-31-05

New Orleans school buses:

New Orleans public transit buses:

Count 'em and weep...

New Orleans school buses:

New Orleans public transit buses:

Count 'em and weep...

[joinedafterattack]

This 20 year old did what Mayor Nagin did not. "When he arrived at the Astrodome about 10 p.m. Wednesday, 20-year-old Jabbar Gibson modestly confessed that he had commandeered a school bus in New Orleans, then picked up about 70 passengers before heading out for the 13-hour trek to Houston."

[flixxx]

give him a medal

[dfwgator]

"Improvise. Adapt. Overcome."

[Mike Darancette]

Good on him!

[mtbopfuyn]

I said it before, I'll say it again, "Jabbour for Mayor!"

[Blzbba]

This kid didn't have to wait for Bush to tell him what to do!

[Travis McGee]

Too bad Mayor Nagin didn't have as much common sense as Jabbar Gibson.

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.

[KC_for_Freedom]

Publish the pictures in every newspaper, Conservative columnists can run it if the papers won't.

The emergency plan indicated that these busses would (a) be moved out of the path of the storm, and (b) would be used to evacuate people who did not have cars.

Why was the plan not followed?

[Arkinsaw]

Now thats an American, not putting up with bureaucratic B.S., taking matters into his own hands, and acting for the benefit of others at some personal risk.

This young man could just as easily have wandered around in waterlogged Wal-Mart's grabbing X-Boxes or DVD's. But he did not and acted on his own initiative for the betterment of others. I suspect it has something to do with how he was raised by his mother.

[JustaCowgirl]

Jabbar Gibson, demonstrating for the Mayor of NO and the Governor of Louisiana what leadership and initiative are all about.

[freekitty]

What a guy. He saw a need and did the deed. Good for him. Americans have resolve and resourceful.

The wrong ones are in power.

[JustaCowgirl]

I just hope some two-bit bureaucrat tries to charge him with a crime for this. I double-dare them. There would be rioting in the streets across America.

[Ostlandr]

Monstrous! I want Mayor Nagin tried at the Hague for crimes against humanity. Here in upstate NY, if there's a flood, we haul people out in road crew dump trucks if we have to.

[KC_for_Freedom]

You know, I stand corrected the plan calls on the Department of Transportation and Development to secure transportation assets and does not say what they are. I wonder who heads this Department?

[Professional Engineer]

ping

[metmom]

No, no, no. He didn't steal it , he BORROWED it. We can rewrite the headline to say: Young, black hero borrows schoolbus; saves people, bus from death by drowning.
Now the school has at least one bus if it ever reopens.

[JustAnotherOkie]

Some people know how to get $hit done.

[marblehead17]

ping

[USNBandit]

Maybe the guys at MTV could "pimp" his new ride.