Posted on 09/08/2005 11:36:07 AM PDT by TaxRelief
I sent an email to Alvarez and Marsal (business managers of New Orleans Public Schools) and asked them why they did not make the school buses available to evacuate the citizens of New Orleans.
Their answer:
Thank you for your question. School buses were not used as all the NOPS transportation employees were also individuals who evacuated the city. Thanks.The answer is cryptic, but to the point.
Any lawyer who sued would richly deserve to have a nice crowd bearing torches and pitchforks right outside of their house.
I agree. Hastert is trying to put together an investigative effort that will actually make some reliable conclusions.
I'd like to think Nagin and Blanco - both of them - will be held criminally responsible, but I have my doubts.
They certainly OUGHT to be thrown in jail for their malfeasance.
I guess they could have used Guard members to drive them--Oops, blanco didn't want the guard there.
Exactly . . . which is why a real evacuation plan would explain that the first task is to take care of the families of your emergency personnel. There ain't gonna be any off-duty cops because you will call them all into emergency duty. And if you call up the National Guard, some of them will probably be some of your own cops.That's why you have to have a realistic plan.
The omitted sentence:
And the guv wouldn't let in the National Guard, or anyone else, to do the job.
Since the New Orleans evacuation plan had been written, reproduced and distributed prior to Katrina, ordering the use of buses to evacuate, I wonder what The Plan said about who would be driving those buses.
Wasn't there a story about a young teenager, who never drove a bus, "stealing" one, driving it and rescuing 59 people. He returned the bus later.
I agree with that 100%.
In the June 9 2005 Orleans Parish School Board meeting minutes - posted elsewhere on FR in another thread - it's clear that the [school] Board was not providing Nagin with any support whatsoever on making the buses available in an evac (let alone drivers).
Move rends board; racism is alleged Tuesday, May 24, 2005
By Brian Thevenot
Staff writer
In a politically charged and racially divisive move, the Orleans Parish School Board voted 4-3 on Monday to give a state-appointed contractor an unprecedented level of financial control over the school system, including the right to hire and fire employees, and let contracts.
The approval of the $16.8 million contract with a New York turnaround firm came against a backdrop of angry speeches by board members and observers alleging an infringement on local governance and African-American voting rights. The three African-American School Board members, President Torin Sanders, Cynthia Cade and Heidi Daniels, voted against the measure. The three white members, Una Anderson, Jimmy Fahrenholtz and Phyllis Landrieu (Senator Landrieu's Aunt?), joined with Vice President Lourdes Moran, who is Hispanic, to pass the measure.
...excerpted
More detail, very interesting...
At the suggestion of writer Michelle Malkin last Friday, I have cobbled together a blogsite called Texas Clearinghouse for Katrina Aid to serve as a clearinghouse for refugee efforts in Texas.
Texas is getting more refugees than any other state -- that's fine, we'll take them all -- but we need help providing them with food, clothing, medicine, and shelter. We need help taking care of their pets, too.
If you are a refugee, you can information that will help you find relief. If you want to donate or volunteer, you can find someone who needs you. Believe me, there are a lot of organizations who need your help.
Right now the site mostly covers Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas but I'm adding more every night. My wife was down at Reunion Arena in Dallas Tuesday handing out care packages and spiritually ministering to the refugees as a representative of her employer. She says that the situation is tragic and that there's a lot of work to be done. There are so many children who don't know where their parents are or even if their parents are still alive.
There are a lot of churches and other organizations in Texas that need help in dealing with the problem and I would appreciate it if you would get the word out.
Many thanks,
Michael McCullough
Stingray blogsite
There is only one operable NO school bus now. It is stilll parked in the corner of the Houston Astrodome parking lot. All the rest are flooded and are likely write-offs.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477173/posts
Perhaps.
We had a 30 mile each way ride to high school. A 19 YO brother of one student drove us to town in the school bus, dropped us off, then went to the local junior college for his classes. Yes, they are not at all difficult now, what with automatics etc; he had a clutch and no freeway through the mountains, and managed just fine even when he had to chain-up.
Or, maybe NG truck/bus drivers...had they been activated in a timely manner.
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