Posted on 09/08/2005 11:35:48 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said in an obscenity-laced tirade on WWL radio last Thursday that the federal government should have sent “Greyhound buses” to evacuate his city. He said school buses were inadequate because they lack bathrooms.
There was an Evacuation Plan, written in 2000 and updated since. It states that New Orleans should be evacuated at the Mayor’s order. He should declare that “48 hours in advance.” It also states he should use “public buses” including transit and school buses.
One of the duties of any Mayor of New Orleans is to know his obligations under this Plan, based on state and federal law. Plus that, Mayor who can walk and chew gum HAD to be aware that massive hurricanes have previously hit New Orleans, and that another such strike was inevitable, sometime
No, I’m not going to give a cite for that Plan. You’re on the Internet as you read this. You’ll believe that fact better if you find an independent source. Look in the Houston Chronicle, a liberal newspaper. Or, in the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper. Or, dozens of other sources. I’ll wait.
Okay, you’re back. You now know the duties Mayor Nagin had as Hurricane Katrina crossed the Gulf of Mexico, growing in strength and eventually heading for New Orleans.
Also, he knew that New Orleans is built below sea level. If the water ever started coming in through a major breach in the levees or canals, the City was finished. Any Mayor too dumb to know that would have been too dumb to raise his hand and take the oath of office.
What did Mayor Nagin do, faced with these facts? First, he was 24 hours late in ordering the evacuation of New Orleans. Second, he did not order local officials to get the buses rolling from parking lots around the City. Third, he took off for Baton Rouge, to give angry press conferences blaming others after the City drowned.
What was the result of Mayor Nagin’s not following the laws and Plan he was obligated to obey as Mayor?
The buses were flooded in their lots. The closest buses were a mere 1.2 miles from the Superdome, as shown by aerial photographs. And all the way through this creeping disaster, one highway connection from the Superdome to the West Bank of the Mississippi, remained open. It was not until 24 hours AFTER Katrina had passed that the nearest buses to the Superdome were flooded and became useless.
What happened to the citizens of New Orleans from the failure to use the available transportation? Many of the bodies of the dead have not been recovered, but Mayor Nagin has said that he expects “about 10,000 dead.”
Of course, more people will die in the future of diseases acquired from the polluted waters. Some of these will be self-inflicted, people who refuse to recognize the continuing danger and stay in their homes. But some will be people who could and would have gotten out, if given a choice. But they didn’t have that choice because they were poor, and the buses didn’t roll.
What are the criteria for a charge of manslaughter?
Anyone who deliberately or through gross negligence causes the death of another human being can be charged with manslaughter. Normally, someone cannot be charged with manslaughter for the failure to do something. If you are driving down the highway and see a car on fire and people in it, you are not obligated to stop and try to get the people out before the gas tank explodes. I know most of you would do that, but you don't have to.)
But anyone who is a public official has assigned duties in a given situation. He/she can be responsible for failure to act. We are talking about Mayor Ray Nagin, who sought his position with certain duties attached. We are not talking about Ray Nagin, private citizen, who is responsible only for saving his own hide (though he certainly did to that).
In my opinion, Mayor Ray Nagin should be charged with 10,000 counts of manslaughter. Any New Orleans prosecutor who seeks justice in his City should bring the charges now for the known dead, and amend the charges later as the list of dead grows, and grows, and grows, and grows.
Is there an honest prosecutor left in New Orleans?
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
Does anyone know the total number of school buses in the New Orleans school system. Everyone talks about the two hundred shown parked in floodwaters. But I would think New Orleans has at least three thousand school buses in their fleet.I live near Louisville Ky and they have approximately thirteen hundred school buses with a population of around one million.New Orleans population is much larger and the number of children per household is obviously much much higher.I think Nagin or Mayor stupid could have evacuated everyone.
I like snakes; found a king snake on my front porch yesterday morning, just sunning himself. But I never anger a snake, especially the rattlers and copperheads. LOL
John / Billybob
If that's true....then....those people DESERVED to be "TRapped" at the SuperDome.
I mean...I know they need help but paupers Just have NO Right to act like guests in the ASTORIA-WALDORF of NYC.
You can check here.
That's ANNEX I: HURRICANES to the City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan.
what i heard was that people were refusing the mres because they weren't prepared for them.
Please. Someone tell Mayor Nagin he has the right to remain silent. And to put down that shovel.
Reckon just how many private automobiles with bathrooms does the jerk think exists? and yet THEY were good enough to move people. Just because he's an incontinent incompetent doesn't mean others should have suffered at his hand. He's an idiot who's efforts are best at blaming everyone but himself.
There is a warehouse in NO that has been set up as an expedient morgue. Initial planning was conducted in order to accomodate up to 1,000. Today, they began to reconfigure it to handle up to 5K.
Found it on another freerepublic thread. Not mine.
Long Tall Jones will save her.
The DUmmies
"Mayor Nagin is a national hero! He can not be made the scapegoat by this evil, corrupt and illegitimate executive!"
Afterall... He saved "80% of the population"! According to this DUmmie!
Someone on the thread pointed out that "80% SAVED THEMSELVES" and that person was asked if they belonged there. You DON'T want to throw any logic into their discussions or you will be OUTED as an imposter!
Thanks for your letter. See pages 13 and 39 of the 45 page Louisana plan (pdf file) for the specific citations to his duty to use buses.
The closest point for physical safety was across the Mississippi to the West Bank. Anyone going North would be driving into the storm. Anyone going East would be driving into equal or worse destruction. So, across the River was the safest option.
That number of buses would have gotten the 100,000 remaining people in the City across the River to safety in about four trips. It would have been less trips if the drivers had been alert, like the young man who stole a bus that had been abandoned on the street by its driver, and drove it all the way to the Astrodome with 70 people on board.
Assume that it would take two hours to get the drivers in the buses, fire the engines and get them rolling, there was plenty of time to make four round trips to high ground on the West Bank. (Two hours, round-trip, assuming that the city and state police were cued in to keep the buses rolling.)
Once the people were safely on high ground, the National Guard (which Governor Blanco did not call up) and the Red Cross (who were ordered by Blanco to stay out of New Orleans) could have taken over from there.
Bottom line, there was ample time BEFORE Katrina reached hurricane force in the City, even given that Mayor Nagin was 24 hours late in ordering the evacuation, to get all of the poor citizens out of New Orleans. Only the ones who were too stupid to leave, would have been left.
The means were there, in barely enough time. All that was lacking was explained in the title of a Spike Lee movie, "Get on the Bus."
John / Billybob
No they had heads
Bottom line is, the people of NO kept asking - pleading for help, and they came up with Blanco.
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