[montanus]

Even those who approve of the mayor said that the crisis is a reminder of how dependent local officials are on the state and federal government during a crisis. New Nagin supporter Brown, who lost his home and his wife's business in the storm, said the mayor's hands were tied. If he had ordered an earlier evacuation, and enforced it, Brown said, he would have encountered another problem.

"Where are we going to send them?" Brown asked. "If you say mandatory, you got to have somewhere for people to go. He don't control nothing but New Orleans."

Actually, the man has a good point. Nagin could have loaded up the buses and shipped some people out. But to where? If there Governor didn't have adequate shelters for his people, where was he supposed to send them? Just drop them all off on a street corner somewhere? It's easy to say "he could have sent them to Houston." But could he really? Would they have taken them last Saturday?

[Cedar]

"Nagin could have loaded up the buses and shipped some people out. But to where?"

Were they just now considering this?

I thought the Mayor and city officials had been studying a possible hurricane hit for years. The buses were mentioned in their "plan," weren't they? Surely they thought about where the buses would go....

[RTINSC]

"Where are we going to send them?" - This is an excuse being tossed about by Democrats to mitigate the mayor's negligence. The buses could have taken people to higher ground, to the Superdome, or for that matter, to the yard where the buses are located now. They are in 2-3 feet of water and not damaged by the storm. At least many people who drowned would have be alive. Uncomfortable, but alive is always the better option.