Snope's Urban Legends: The New Orleans School Buses

Snopes.com ^ | 6 September 2005 | Snopes.com

[BlackRain]

School Buses

Claim: Photograph shows school buses caught in a flooded New Orleans parking lot.

Status: True.

[BlackRain]

"Whether this photograph truly represents a lost opportunity to have evacuated a substantial number of New Orleans residents ahead of Hurricane Katrina is difficult to assess."

Snopes is apparently trying to downplay the unused school buses in the evacuation of New Orleans.

[weegee]

Snopes is run by lefties. They often bitch, moan, and distort.

They still won't call Hillary a liar for claiming she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary. They'd rather leave open the possibility that her mother was the liar.

[umgud]

"Whether this photograph truly represents a lost opportunity to have evacuated a substantial number of New Orleans residents ahead of Hurricane Katrina is difficult to assess."

No, it is not! These busses were certainly available prior to the storm when everybody was being ordered to evacuate. Probably the same busses that were used during elections to get voters to polling places.

[dfwgator]

Opportunities like the one posited here may or may not have been missed in New Orleans, but coping with the uncertainty and confusion of natural disasters as they unfold is rarely as simple as it might seem in retrospect.

Of course, that won't stop them from bashing President Bush.

[weegee]

I won't be going to Snopes' site today. Do they include quotes about the buses from the City Of New Orleans' own evacuation plan?

[stuartcr]

Maybe they couldn't get anyone to drive?

[Swanks]

Yes. Assesing whether 200 busses parked 1.2 miles from the SuperDome could have removed most or all in two trips, is difficult 'to assess'. For MSM, anyway.

[usmcobra]

There is one Orleans Parish school bus at the Astro Dome that debunks the myth that they were rendered unusable.

[TomGuy]

They seem to ignore the pix of the city transit buses sitting idle in a parking lot, too.

And then, Mayor Nagin goes on TV and whines for Greyhound to send buses and drivers to rescue the people.

[CheneyChick]

A picture says a thousand words....

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/3334317

[TomGuy]

One pic circulating shows some of the parked buses and the roadway to the Civic Center and Superdome were all on dry land.

Point being -- Nagin was negligent in doing anything to rescue people before, during, or immediately after.

[kcvl]

Tuesday, September 06, 2005
By Brit Hume


Blame Game

Last night we told you about an editorial in the New Orleans Times-Picayune blaming President Bush (search) and the federal government for failing to adequately respond to the Katrina disaster. But earlier this summer, the paper reported that Mayor Nagin and other city officials were warning "the poorest of New Orleans' poor" that if a hurricane hits, "you're on your own."

City administrators distributed hundreds of DVDs in vulnerable, low-income neighborhoods, telling residents that while some city and school buses would be deployed to move those without transportation, "you're responsible for your safety." This despite the fact that New Orleans' emergency hurricane plan places the responsibility for evacuation on the mayor and city's transit authority.

[Pirogue Captain]

"Snopes is run by lefties. They often bitch, moan, and distort. "




They sure tried covering for Al Gore. A number of articles was written about it.

[Jet Jaguar]

Prove this to be bunk. Then get back to me.

[Lancey Howard]

Snopes is run by lefties. They often bitch, moan, and distort.

Yep.

[Constitution Day]

BTTT!

[PMCarey]

One question about the school buses: If they had used the school buses to evacuate, where would they have taken all of those people? Do you just drive them out of town and leave them somewhere? No. The school buses are only one part of the solution. You also have to create relief shelters ready to accomodate all of the tens of thousands of people you're taking out of the city. This can't be done by New Orleans alone, it has to be coordinated with the state disaster agencies (Blanco anyone?)

So let's say you're the mayor and yeah you have these buses; but no one has set up any shelter to receive those people. What good are the buses to you now?

[frankjr]

That kid must be an experienced bus driver otherwise his personal evacuation plan wouldn't have worked. According to Snopes:

"Whether this photograph truly represents a lost opportunity to have evacuated a substantial number of New Orleans residents ahead of Hurricane Katrina is difficult to assess. Such a claim presumes an availability of resources (e.g., experienced drivers..."

[GW and Twins Pawpaw]

Seems to me they brought 250,000 to Texas. So they had places to take them. The 'leadership' just failed, in fact hindered, efforts to get things going.

[najida]

Part of the disaster plan would have been to establish destinations well in advance of any event.

That is what other cities do. And they sign contracts/agreements....have water, food, workers who are designated to got to the sites even before an evacation is declared.

It can and has been done in other towns, cities and states. Sadly, NOLA never looked at anyone else's playbook.