Naggin has been suggesting this problem, while not overtly stating it, since Tuesday Aug 30th. The reasons behind Blanco's 24 hour stalling on Friday night/Saturday can now be reasonably discerned from what many sources are talking about. Nagin wanted out, didn't have the authority to commandeer buses from local and regional school boards to evacuate those willing to evaucate without Blanco's authority for both commandeering the necessary transport and fielding shelters to house the willing evacuees with a reasonable level of safety standards. Liability issues,
protection of capital assets,
recruitment of licensed CDL bus drivers,
insuring those drivers,
having pre prepared stocks of emergency equipment never actually having been prepared as stipulated by the state emergency plans,
reticence by school boards private transportation companies and public and private transit authorities outside the mandatory evacuation area to release their bus assets to the state,
the political fall out from the 2004 Ivan evacuation,
etc.,
etc.,
all led to Gov. Blanco crumbling under cascading failures that go back well over a decade.
In due time, the men and women responsible for emergency management in other hurricane areas of the country will come forward and describe the years of preplanning that has gone on within their states, and point out specific failures of the LA state government in comparison.