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New Orleans Public Schools just admitted they put their employees ahead of NO citizens
email response from Alvarez and Marsal | Sept 08, 2005 | Taxrelief

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.


TOPICS: Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: alvarezandmarsal; buses; hurricane; incompetence; katrina; katrinafailures; neworleans; nops
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To: bk1000
If they (City of NO) let anyone other than certified school bus drivers operate those vehicles, they could have(and would have)been sued.

Any lawyer who sued would richly deserve to have a nice crowd bearing torches and pitchforks right outside of their house.

61 posted on 09/08/2005 12:47:37 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: GGpaX4DumpedTea

I agree. Hastert is trying to put together an investigative effort that will actually make some reliable conclusions.


62 posted on 09/08/2005 12:47:45 PM PDT by Kryptonite
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To: johnb838

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.


63 posted on 09/08/2005 12:49:13 PM PDT by Kryptonite
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To: TaxRelief

I guess they could have used Guard members to drive them--Oops, blanco didn't want the guard there.


64 posted on 09/08/2005 12:49:34 PM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like what you say))
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To: Rutles4Ever; Congressman Billybob
these people have their own houses and vehicles and families to worry about
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.


65 posted on 09/08/2005 12:55:37 PM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: massgopguy
It may have been wrong information but I heard the other day that half of the school buses were owned by the STATE and the other were owned by individuals [contractors].

If I understood the Gov. is the only one who could release the state owned bussed. It didn't say anything about the privately owned buses, how that could be handled.

It looks to me if the owners of the privately owned had no other way out, they could have taken their families and as many as they could load up get them out of there.

I wonder if any of those owners lost their lives or did they leave another way.

I may have misunderstood this. Maybe someone can research and see if it's true.
66 posted on 09/08/2005 1:00:02 PM PDT by frannie (Be not afraid of tomorrow - God is already there!)
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To: TaxRelief
School buses were not used as all the NOPS transportation employees were also individuals who evacuated the city. Thanks

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.

67 posted on 09/08/2005 1:01:04 PM PDT by GretchenM (Hooked on porn and hating it? Visit http://www.theophostic.com .)
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To: dead

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.


68 posted on 09/08/2005 1:08:18 PM PDT by maxwellp
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To: GretchenM
"And the guv wouldn't let in the National Guard, or anyone else, to do the job."

Exactly. This is unreal. I have to say, and this is not "Monday morning quarterbacking" that when I first became aware of the impending catastrophe on the Friday and Saturday BEFORE the storm, one of my first thoughts was "wow, they had better declare some ultimate emergency and commandeer every last bus and vehicle in the city to evac the entire population because they will never get everyone out of there otherwise".....(and yes, I had a pretty good idea how difficult it would be to do that at the last minute - but still better than leaving tens of thousands to drown) to find that what seems like such common sense was not done and that the emergency plans of both city and state were not even implemented is just so appalling. And now, to watch Demagogues like Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Jesse Jackson, Mary Landrieu and friends turn this into a partisan onslaught against the Republicans is even more sickening since it was the 'Rats in the city and state who had both the responsibilities and the means to get it done......
69 posted on 09/08/2005 1:12:59 PM PDT by Enchante
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

I agree with that 100%.


70 posted on 09/08/2005 1:13:27 PM PDT by Rutles4Ever
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To: Grut
...the drivers ran away, but that doesn't mean the schools had a policy of not allowing the busses to be used, only that the drivers' absconding made it 'impossible'.

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).

71 posted on 09/08/2005 1:27:14 PM PDT by TaxRelief
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To: freeangel
Here's the thread about buses being "borrowed" to evacuate people: Storm Victims Steal School Buses To Flee New Orleans
72 posted on 09/08/2005 1:40:38 PM PDT by TaxRelief
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Comment #73 Removed by Moderator

To: frannie
From Times Picayune

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

74 posted on 09/08/2005 3:45:09 PM PDT by TaxRelief
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To: jasoncann

More detail, very interesting...


75 posted on 09/08/2005 3:46:43 PM PDT by TaxRelief
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To: TaxRelief
Fellow Freepers:

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

76 posted on 09/08/2005 3:54:42 PM PDT by DallasMike
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To: TaxRelief

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


77 posted on 09/08/2005 3:58:20 PM PDT by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
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To: TaxRelief

Perhaps.


78 posted on 09/08/2005 4:25:50 PM PDT by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
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To: Qwackertoo
It isn't like you need to graduate from Bus Driving 101 to operate one, not like they were complicated jet airplanes, how hard could it be. As I pick up my kids from school every afternoon, I notice MOST of the bus drivers look like ordinary Mom's driving buses as their part time job and NOT a specially trained captain or co-pilot at the nearest airport.

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.

79 posted on 09/08/2005 5:44:22 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (The Marching Morons are coming...and they're breeding more Democrats beyond all reason!)
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To: Rutles4Ever
A designated group of off-duty police could have been tapped to drive these buses even if it's not in the labor contract.

Or, maybe NG truck/bus drivers...had they been activated in a timely manner.

80 posted on 09/08/2005 5:55:54 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (The Marching Morons are coming...and they're breeding more Democrats beyond all reason!)
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