Posted on 08/28/2005 6:42:16 PM PDT by bamaroots04
POLITICALLY MOTIVATED MAYOR WAITS TOO LATE TO DECLARE MANDATORY EVACUATIONS. THE FEDERAL GOVT NEEDS THE POWER TO OVERRIDE LOCAL POLITICS AND ORDER EVACUATIONS.
The Mayor of New Orleans has blood on his hands. It took President Bush's pleas to finally influence the mayor to call for a mandatory evacuation. Meteorologists have been fairly certain since Thursday that New Orleans was going to be the target of Katrina, and furthermore that in all likelihood Katrina would grow into a Category 4 storm. Experts have warned that a Category 3 storm would ravage New Orleans with 20 foot floods which would require months to drain from the city. A category 3 would induce catastrophic damage in New Orleans. And yet Katrina was predicted to be not just a category 3, but a category 4, so the damage would foreseeably be many times more devastating than the mere 20 foot flood catastrophe a category 3 would induce. Yet the mayor of New Orleans did nothing, wasted precious time, hoping foolishly that the storm track would change.
Now in America for some reason we have delegated the authority to declare mandatory evacuations to the mayors of affected areas. There is a tremendous flaw in this system. People become increasingly complacent and aggravated when they are forced to evacuate for a storm and it misses them entirely. The many "false alarm" evacuations prompted by the barrage of hurricanes that hit the US last year but missed New Orleans created a cynical citizenry, upset at the inconvenience of being moved for a false alarm hurricane evacuation.
Fast forward to August 2005, despite Katrina barreling towards New Orleans, the mayor hesitated and hesitated to declare mandatory evacuations because he feared repercussions @ the ballot box if the evac turned out to be another false alarm.
It took the President's persistence to sway the Mayor to finally declare mandatory evacuations Saturday morning. That left authorities in New Orleans two days to organize and assemble mass evacuations. As it stands, there are likely thousands of impoverished, backwoods people who in their reluctance to accept New Orleans impending doom refuse to leave behind the homes that they and their ancestors have proudly inhabited for decades. Naturally, they are induced by a mix of cynicism, denial, and pride to attempt to preserve the fruits of their lives' labor, namely their homes.
There is a good chance that many of the thousands of remaining people will not last through the 200+ wind gusts, +28 foot storm surge, and 20+ foot flood streams. All because of the political concerns of a mayor and an US policy that allows those political concerns to determine whether or not to order evacuations.
Local authorities are already using the Superdome as a shelter for anyone who can't get out of town this evening. I don't know if there is anything else that can be done in this case. Do you think the National Guard has enough manpower and vehicles to evacuate 100,000+ people from New Orleans (on roads that are already clogged with traffic)?
Those poor homeless welfare orphans usually manage to have big screen TV's, computers, pets, cigs, and drugs while their dirty kids run around hungry in rags. We lived in a high welfare town for 18 years with three slum lord owned rental properties next to us and we saw it all. These people are not that out of touch. They know what's going on in the world but lie and whine to the authorities. "We didn't know" "We couldn't help it" and laugh about it behind their backs. We saw and heard that, too.
They are people first. As such they can make their own decisions.
It is a legitimate function of government to provide an organized plan of evacuation. Otherwise, emergency situations like this one would quickly degenerate into panic and chaos, adding to the danger rather than providing assistance.
Libertarian extremists and anarchists are whacknuts.
The problem is not the mayor's duties, but the lack of will to execute them. What about the governor's inaction? Should we remove governors' powers in times of emergencies in their states?
"Do you think all these people have the necessary resources, even such a basic thing as a TV to know whats going on, to make a decision about whether or not they should evacuate?"
Yes.
Of course not. But they have a right to some input, seeing as its their dime.
So the locals are too emotionally attached to make a clear and rational decision?
I really, really dislike that line of argument.
The federal govt would have begun mandatory evacuations much earlier because they don't have the local allegiance that has blinded New Orleans citizens from accepting the inevitable.
With that extra time, not only could those without transportation have been relocated, but those who are stuck in that bumper to bumper traffic would have been able to get further away from New Orleans and further out of the path of the hurricane.
Because of lost time, New Orleanders have been unable to get as far out of the storms path as they need to be.
Many have only been able to move slightly north to Baton Rouge, which is only 60 miles away from the coast and still in the path of Katrina. Had they had the extra time they could have gotten to a place of safety and not a place of slightly less danger.
Obviously these people just don't understand what a Category 5 can do...good Lord!
You know what...don't blame the Mayor for this one. People need to pop the government titty out of their mouths and have enough sense to get out of the rain.
He can't babysit a whole damn city!
When you say the mayor has blood on his hands you are using the wrong tense and stating as fact something you are predicting.
No, there is absolutely no reason to transfer that kind of power to Washington. The people have access to the news and it's their decision ultimately. If the mayor made a wrong call, so be it, but transferring it to the federal government would be an even worse disaster.
Ditto to that.
He did it too late.
People have only had time because of logjam traffic to move about a hundred miles or so. As metereologists have noted, this still leaves them in the path of the storm. These people have only improved their luck moderately.
Had they left Thursday, they could have gotten completely out of Katrinas path.
The mayor was not ready to declare mandatory evacs even by this morning, he only did so at Bush's insistence.
These people have had less than 24 hours notice to get out of New Orleans.
I incorrectly wrote that the mayor issued the declaration Saturday morning. In reality, it was not until 10:45 this morning.
The people of New Orleans have not been able in most cases to get more than 100 miles away from New Orleans.
How much good is that doing them? They are still not safe, just in slightly less critical danger than they would have been had they remained in New Orleans.
The Feds do have input. NOAA is a Federal organization.
There is no evidence that Federal policy makers are any more competent than local policy makers when it comes to declaring evacuations.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.