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.

[Callahan]

Once the levees broke, it became clear that everyone had to be removed from New Orleans by any means necessary. It's still easier to rescue people from a roadside on the outer limits of NO than a swamped urban hell hole.

[Verginius Rufus]

If they had used the school buses to evacuate, the only sensible thing would have been to tell the drivers to head to Texas, where there are some adults in charge. (I'm exaggerating--there seem to be some competent people in the smaller cities in Louisiana.)

[FreedomPoster]

Index bump.

[TexasGreg]

I used to consider Snopes the final word on Urban legends ... not anymore. If politics is involved, their conclusions will now be "questionable" in my estimation.

[Lancey Howard]

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."

As a matter of fact, the lying Democrat hypocrites at the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported on New Orleans' poor preparation back in 2002. From Special Report:

Garrett: And the city [sic] of Louisiana. They have a whole plan that contemplates dealing with an evacuation in the effect of a hurricane three, four or five. Their own plan says, 100,000 residents minimum from the New Orleans area will have to be evacuated. This plan makes it clear ...

Hume: You mean, can't get out on their own.

Garrett: These people will have not have their own vehicles. Not only that, It stipulate that these people are disproportionately poor, sick and in need of special transportation assistance. Brit, I think in these circumstances, bureaucratic language is important. Let's go to this. This is what the state says: "the Department of Health and Hospitals has the primary responsibility for providing medical coordination for all of the special-needs populations, i.e. hospital and nursing home patients, persons on home health care, elderly persons and other persons with physical or mental disabilities." Brit, I don't think you can come up with a better description of the people we saw, day in and day out, at the Superdome and the convention center, than this very population that the state's own plan said needed to be transported to a safe place and provided services.

Hume: Apparently no plan, no provision, no facility for doing that.

Garrett: No facility for doing that. Not only that, those who reviewed the plans the state put together before were critical of it. In 2002 the New Orleans Times Picayune had a whole story about this saying no one believes the evacuation plans are possible, feasible or will be carried out. They proved to be accurate.

Hume: It sounds like the state will have much to answer for in the investigation coming before Congress as well as the federal government.

Garrett: It appears to be.

[Callahan]

I heard that Nagin didn't use the school buses for evac purposes because they didn't have bathrooms.

[pageonetoo]

From 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, fuel) and workable logistics (e.g., sufficient means of notifying and getting residents to departure points, sufficiently clear roads for multiple trips out of town and back, adequate facilities within a reasonable driving distance capable of providing shelter, food, and water to a large number of people for an indeterminate period of time on short notice) that may or may not have been present. (There's no guarantee that all the buses shown in this picture were even in working condition.) And, given the particular geography of New Orleans, any such evacuation would have had to have begun well in advance of Hurricane Katrina to avoid exposing residents to the potential danger of being stuck in buses on traffic-clogged roads in the path of an approaching hurricane. Moreover, any type of evacuation effort would have incurred a substantial outlay of funds from local and/or state governments — while everyone agrees with the advantage of hindsight that would have been money well spent, many taxpayers might not have been left feeling so enthusiastic about footing the bill for an unnecessary evacuation had Hurricane Katrina not proved so damaging.

from- New Orleans City Business (online), Jan, 2005:... New Orleans Public Schools have poor records of using Title I funds, which are federal dollars given to meet the needs of students from low-income families, according to an investigative audit by the U.S. Department of Education.

During the audit period, which spanned from July 1, 2001, to Dec. 31, 2003, the school system received $71.8 million in Title I reimbursements but could not substantiate how $69.6 million of that total was used.

There were more than ONE THOUSAND BUSES, available, and unused...

I saw one image of a couple of families currently residing in two city buses, idling in front of their home, with the Air Conditioning "so cold we have to cover up at night". Asked where they came from, the resident told the reporter that he had simply started them, and driven them to his barely flooded yard, where "they were going to use them until the fuel ran out!"

I agree with another poster, elsewhere... "and we thought Chief Moose was imcompetent"! This is criminal.

[bmwcyle]

Snopes is run by lefties

You can never trust anything they post.

[sweet_diane]

" If they had used the school buses to evacuate, where would they have taken all of those people?"

When staring down the barrel of a Cat 5 storm, which Katrina was up until right before landfall, you just drive away from the storm. Even if the buses couldn't have made a return run for more evacuees, look at how many more people would have been out of harm's way. Considering the situation, communities along the evac route's could have easily opened shelters in places north and west of the areas to be hit. Even without shelters, folks could have been driven away from danger. I'd prefer a school bus on the side of the road in East Texas to anywhere on the LA or MS coasts.

[SampleMan]

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?

Concur that structured receiving site is most advantageous, but sleeping on the ground would be preferable to 15 feet of water. A strong leader would have loaded the buses, headed them north and told the Gov. she had the first batch on the way. What is she going to do blockade the roadways to seal people in the city?

[najida]

Well,
A car doesn't have a bathroom either :)

[joe fonebone]

oh please!!!!!!!!!!! 10 people, on the phones for 2 hours, and enough shelters and/or hotel rooms would have been arranged!!!!!!!!!! the mayor did NOTHING.......not a damn thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Skooz]

bump

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Snopes is a leftist site, just like Wikipedia.

[DumpsterDiver]

"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."

City officials had 550 municipal buses and hundreds of additional school buses at their disposal but made no plans to use them to get people out of New Orleans before the storm, said Chester Wilmot, a civil engineering professor at Louisiana State University and an expert in transportation planning, who helped the city put together its evacuation plan.

Instead, local buses were used to ferry people from 12 pickup points to poorly supplied "shelters of last resort" in the city. An estimated 50,000 New Orleans households have no access to cars, Wilmot said.

State and local plans both called for extra help to be provided in advance to residents with "special needs," though no specific timetable was prepared. But phone lines for people who needed specialized shelters opened at noon Saturday — barely 30 hours before Katrina came ashore in Louisiana.

Many people from New Orleans ended up staying home or using a "last resort" special needs shelter state authorities and the city health department set up at the Superdome. Those who made it out of town initially found limited space. The state of Louisiana provided shelter in Baton Rouge and five other cities for a total of about 1,000.

snip

New Orleans strayed from evacuation plan
September 8, 2005
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3344347

[Osage Orange]

Nice post...........

[bonfire]

Speaking of vehicles; last night on FOX they toured the 9th district in NO and I was struck by all the flooded CARS in the street and driveways.

I thought the people who got stuck in the storm didn't own cars????

[savedbygrace]

Snopes is just living up to their liberal roots, and throwing up their hands to say, "How can anyone be sure these busses would have saved anyone?"

My Golden Retreiver is smart enough to play dumb, too, whenever he's asked to do something he doesn't want to do.

[TexasGreg]

Instead, local buses were used to ferry people from 12 pickup points to poorly supplied "shelters of last resort" in the city. An estimated 50,000 New Orleans households have no access to cars, Wilmot said.

Wait a minute. About 4 times that number of people have been rescued from New Orleans AFTER the flood. So ... that really does put to rest the NONSENSE that all these people were poor and didn't own cars! They just didn't want to get out!

[Muzzle_em]

Lets see, they all had tires, and working engines. I'd say..YES, it was a lost opportunity to evacuate.

For the idiots who would say there were no drivers, I point them to that brave 18-yr. old who is one of my favorite heroes in this mess. I say ANYONE who knows how to drive and WANTED to get the H out of there could have gotten behind the wheel and successfully driven a few folks out if given the opportunity.