We Shut Down the Bridge

Washington Times & UPI via NRO ^ | Sep. 9, 2005 | Shaun Waterman

[hipaatwo]

Think local officials are less to blame for deaths in New Orleans than federal officials? In the most jaw-dropping story of the week, UPI has the police chief of Gretna, Louisiana, admitting that he closed off one of the major arteries out of New Orleans on Monday, before the storm hit:

"We shut down the bridge," Arthur Lawson, chief of the City of Gretna Police Department, confirmed to United Press International, adding that his jurisdiction had been "a closed and secure location" since before the storm hit.

"All our people had evacuated and we locked the city down," he said. The bridge in question -- the Crescent City Connection -- is the major artery heading west out of New Orleans across the Mississippi River.

He added that the small town, which he called "a bedroom community" for the city of New Orleans, would have been overwhelmed by the influx. "There was no food, water or shelter" in Gretna City, Lawson said. "We did not have the wherewithal to deal with these people. If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."

[lifacs]

With a Cat 5 hurricane bearing down, nothing like locking your people directly in the path. Idiots!!!!

I lived through Frances and Jeanne last year. I'm willing to say that anyone who didn't leave on Friday night was an idiot.

[mosquitobite]

okay, aside from the direction of the bridge, the fact that it is SOP to close the bridge during a hurricane, the fact that the bridge would need inspection and the fact that the bridge is likely not rated for the weight if food traffic, no one has proposed what could have been done with the people who managed to make it across the bridge.

I have. Escort them THROUGH his city, or let the guard do so, if that was his concern! The bridge was used for traffic, they just wouldn't let the foot traffic across OUT of NO.

Look, I'm sympathetic to the fact that I wouldn't want most of the population of NO in my backyard and I can see WHY he did it. It doesn't excuse it though. There should have been a place for those people to go on FOOT. One of my biggest beefs with this whole calamity is that people that were capable of helping themselves sat and waited for help.

After reading this story, it does piss me off that the people weren't just "sitting around" they were prevented from leaving. That's just wrong! Escort them through his city to help if he didn't have resources, but to let them rot in that hell hole is just WRONG!

[Tarpon]

Nope -- I am still trying to figure out if people will be forcibly removed from their homes. The Mayor says yes, the Gov says no. Looters aren't looters, snipers aren't snipers and all is calm -- so who you gonna believe :)

As to high winds, it was a hurricane, sever squalls and tornadoes can happen 100s of miles from the hurricane before or after.

Don't want to ruin the conspiracy so ...

[dirtboy]

I am amazed at some of the cavalier responses by some on this site about this subject.

I'm amazed. And disappointed. Grossly disappointed.

Apparently Nagin is fair game but this police chief isn't.

[wideawake]

It's silly to be aghast that people were frigging DYING of dehydration and they weren't let over a bridge to get away?

No, it's silly to say that people were starving when they had full access to every foodstore in the Quarter as well as the MREs being distributed at the Superdome and Convention Center.

Water was being distributed as well, and it is unclear that anyone at all died from dehydration in the Superdome.

I'll leave it at saying that my opinion of you is as low as any freeper in memory.

You do a have a knack for hyperbole.

[Petronski]

I would like to hear the results of an official legal investigation of this. He might well have exceeded his authority.

[spunkets]

" Of course, this WASN'T the only path out of New Orleans. And if I recall, there weren't TOO many people who tried to cross it. Gretna, it appears, is still standing.."

All that matters is that it was a path and was available to evacuees out of harms way. The clowns closed down the bridge w/o just cause. If I was a fed prosecutor, I'd bring the sheriff up on charges of violating their rights under the color of law.

[dirtboy]

As to high winds, it was a hurricane, sever squalls and tornadoes can happen 100s of miles from the hurricane before or after.

This was happening days afterwards.

Unless a decaying hurricane can reach down from Ohio with a feeder band, that's nonsense.

[daybreakcoming]

Was the bridge itself federal, state, or parish? Who owns it?
There are just no good answers yet on so much of this disaster.
God help us if that police chief is Republican but which I doubt. If you're not democrat in that part of the state, you ain't shinola.

[sandydipper]

Very often the truth is stranger than fiction.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

MSM will say FEMA ordered it!

[dirtboy]

Water was being distributed as well, and it is unclear that anyone at all died from dehydration in the Superdome.

They had run out. READ THE EYEWITNESS REPORTS. A cop trapped in the Convention Center said people were DYING of DEHYDRATION. Doesn't take long in stifling heat with NO VENTILATION.

But you'd rather spin this away.

[agincourt1415]

I wonder if the Democrats still want a "Congressional Investigation".

Sounds like its shaping up to be the fault of local, mostly Democratic Politicians making stupid mistakes.

If we do have a "Investigation" lets make sure it concludes in September of 2006 just before the November Elections.

[Fred Hampton]

Actually they said at first glance it doesn't look like 10,000 are dead. They still have not gone into many of the homes. I hope it doesn't reach 1,000 but if people keep on insisting on staying it actually may reach a 1,000.

[Boatlawyer]

Promising people that their property will still be there when they get back is probably the best incentive for them to evacuate.

It is likely that the people who are insisting on staying in NO despite the hideous conditions know that preserving property is the last priority of the authorities.

Although it seems harsh, the Gretna police strategy would have dovetailed with the purported N.O. evacuation plans, had that plan been implemented. The evacuees would have ridden out on buses, not walked.

It is hard to blame the Gretna police for not sacrificing their city just because New Orleans did not execute their plan.

[Petronski]

The bridge is not rated for foot traffic? No volume of foot traffic whatsoever? Not even a single-file breakstep? I find that very hard to believe.

[BushCountry]

I think everyone needs to calm down.

First, only 80% of the city of New Orleans was under water (mostly residential). The 20% that was dry consisted of factories, warehouses, sky scrappers, shipping containers full of food and supplies, 100s of grocery & convenience stores, ect...

There was plenty of supplies in the city proper to feed the 40,000 total people at the dome and convention center for several days easily. If the police organized a relief effort not person would have been without.

There was a massive failure of the Local and State government that cause the turmoil plain and simple.

[MineralMan]

"I'm amazed. And disappointed. Grossly disappointed.

Apparently Nagin is fair game but this police chief isn't."

---

That is odd, isn't it? Perhaps we're hearing from folks who wouldn't want the NO evacuees in their neighborhood. Do you suppose?

If true, this is a really bad story. Someone's going to be very sorry he did that.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ROFL!

Good One!

[IronMan04]

Dense foot traffic weighs more than even dense vehicle traffic. That is why the Brooklyn Bridge swayed during the blackout evacuation.

Think of it like this. Your body mass is denser and thus weighs more than a vehicle.

Consider this, a car has a footprint of around 45-50 square feet while a person has a footprint of around one square foot and weighs 150 pounds.

The weight of people Walking in a 50 square foot area is 7500 pounds much heaver than the average vehicle.