Posted on 09/06/2005 10:16:17 PM PDT by tallhappy
Yeah, well, I wouldn't believe too much of the hate Bush media spiel. I think the rescue operations went pretty well under the circumstances.
Absolutely. We need to pay federal bureaucrats to sit around watching television all day.
Sheesh.
I thought we already did.
Yep, get your FEMA RFID tag so they can resue you. Former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson already got his.
The Red Queen is making her phone calls now
Charles Bronson was in a good movie with a similiar plot
Just caught a C-SPAN Replay with all of the House and Senate
leadership and dear Nancy has decided that the FEMA head ..Brown is totally responsible for all of the suffering.....what a fruitcake she is....
What's with the 24/7 fire FEMA stuff? Bashing the Feds with Blanko and Nogin still holding forth seems like putting a bandaid on the nose of a man with two broken legs to me.
Yeah it's like im over at DU or something.
By all means, let's take directions on what should be done from Shepherd Smith, Anderson Cooper, or Geraldo!
Minutes From June 5 Meeting Of Orleans Parish School Board: Using School Buses In Evacs
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Orleans Parish Shool Board ^ | June 5 2005 | None
Posted on 09/06/2005 6:19:29 PM PDT by angkor
Found this in the Google cache, the minutes from a June 5 meeting of the Orleans Parish School Board.
The Board members had a very specific discussion about releasing school buses to the City Of New Orleans for hurricane evacuations.
Sorry for the length, but it does provide some valuable insights, e.g., what took the City so long to conclude this deal? They'd been talking with the School Board for at least a year.
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:-NDJWqbkSEUJ:www.nops.k12.la.us/content/board/minutes/2005/bmin060905.pdf+%22school+buses%22+%22new+orleans+parish%22&hl=en&client=opera
Orleans Parish School Board 3510 General de Gaulle Drive New Orleans, Louisiana 70114
A Committee of the Whole Meeting of the Orleans Parish School Board was held:
Thursday – June 9, 2005
Hurricane Preparedness
Ms. Bartholomew: President Sanders indicated that he wanted this on the agenda because of the Hurricane season. Last year when schools needed to be closed, department heads were unclear because a lot of our school records are still in paper format and not in electronic format. So they didn’t know the proper procedure to follow with maintaining records. In addition, President Sanders also indicated that the City would like us to work with them. If a hurricane should come to the City in order to save the school buses, those assets, the City had asked if we would loan the school buses to be utilized for those persons in New Orleans. A lot of the citizens of New Orleans do not have transportation and have no way of evacuating from the City if a hurricane should come this way. He had been talking with Dr. Kevin Stephens from the Health Department because the Red Cross said that they would not commit to opening any shelters in the City of New Orleans if a hurricane comes this way. It would be all for naught. They wanted to utilize school buses in order to transport those persons out of the City. I believe that the City had agreed to indemnify and hold harmless the School Board if any of those persons got hurt on the buses because that was one of my concerns. But after speaking with Ms. Bowers, who had spoken with certain persons at the City as well, they indicated they would release us of any liability. He wanted the Board to be aware of what the City is doing with hurricane preparedness and I guess initiate the proceeding for the Administration to start taking steps now before we get on the door steps of a hurricane. How are we going to preserve students records? If you cannot come back to the City, the children will need those records to go into new schools in other States or other Parishes. She is here now; he can speak to it.
Mr. Sanders: I first noticed that this current policy, 3651R, a 16 page policy, looks like it was drafted in July 1989. I don’t know if it has been reviewed since 1989 but it probably could withstand review on that sake along. It has a lot of titles in here in terms of people in positions and I wonder if those same titles and positions are still operable. The larger issue is not with the records and that is a major issue. The children are even more important in terms of making sure they are safe. We know many of our children and families don’t have transportation and even though it is a City responsibility to plan for emergencies and hurricane preparedness, we need to look at working even more cooperatively or seeking a more cooperative relationship with the City on behalf of the students that we serve. I did talk with Dr. Kevin Stephens in the Health Department of the City. It is our interest to get buses and other vehicles that we may own out of the City in the event it is being evacuated. So those buses should not be empty. It was also his suggestion and call that they should be filled with families and children that may need a ride out of City and may perhaps designate certain high schools in different neighborhoods as staging grounds for families to go to should the need arise for an evacuation. The City is working on arrangements with different Civic Centers in Houma and depending on where the hurricane is coming from, where we need to go. They are making arrangements with institutions in those areas such as Baton Rouge, Mississippi, or Hammond to wait out the hurricane. I just wanted to bring that to your attention. In the last two years we had evacuations and with this season it is predicted to be another big one. With last year’s storm, Mr. Jerome Smith over in the Treme’ area said there were a lot kids who were just stuck there. They were going to break into or were willing to get in one of our schools in order to be safe. We completely understand. I informed him that a school would not have been a good place to be if a hurricane did come. Only about four or five of our schools would really withstand a category three or higher hurricane. Using our schools as shelters is really not an option. Getting out of the City is the best option. We need to find ways to facilitate that for the kids we serve. Even though it is not our primary responsibility, as such, we need to facilitate those relationships.
Mrs. Landrieu: I just wanted to remind you that if we are going to include buses, which are not part of this plan, then we need to include the personnel and communication with personnel.
Ms. Bowers: We have been meeting with City entities about the hurricane preparedness and we have talked to them about our buses. We still have not defined how many they want. They have agreed to indemnify the School Board for using the buses. They said if our bus drivers volunteer then they will make arrangements to take the families of the bus drivers and offer them secure places. They are talking about having City Officers on buses also. There is a good bit of planning that is underway. Benita Cochran and the head of transportation and the head of Security have been participating in these meetings, too. We are trying to stay on top it. This does need review. Ms. Cochran is reviewing the Facilities plan.
It's neither the NG's fault or Chertoff's fault that the Governor didn't deploy the Louisiana NG on time to quell the rampant violence in NOLA.
Kerrick had no business being in charge of National Homeland Security when he couldn't manage to keep and illegal out of his own home. Certainly we have more qualified Americans.
Complete and utter BS.
I don't get it either. It's like Blanco and Nagin are getting a free pass in the media. The focus on FEMA, to me it seems, is a means to divert attention to the incompetency of Blanco and Nagin.
Right, both Pelosi and Reid were together on the plan, Hastert and DeLay took exception but Pelosi jumped back in with the reporters and really got her barbs in!
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