Were school and public buses part of the evacuation plan?
If not, why not?
If so, what was the manning plan to have drivers available and what was the marshaling plan to get them loaded.
Good questions, all. Where I live, most school bus drivers are part-time employees, often moms whose own kids are among the passengers. Rolling out 200 school buses would mean ordering, or at least asking, 200 CDL drivers not to evacuate with their families.
That would require the drivers knowing in advance that they might get that call, and residents knowing in advance where the buses will be to pick them up. The kind of information that would have to be disseminated at the beginning of hurricane season, and for it to work, the order would have to be given on Friday night/Saturday morning at the very least, not Sat. night/Sun. morning.
Nagin could've asked Blanco to provide Guardsmen to drive the buses.
Just think what the dynamics would be if Katrina hadn't turned at the last moment, and the eye had gone through the Big Easy with all those people still huddled in their homes. The citizens of New Orleans should consider themselves blessed. They'd still be hangin' in trees all the way to Arkansas if Katrina hadn't turned.