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New Orleans Mayor's Irresponsibility Shows Need For Federal Control Over Storm Evacuations
My Noggin ^ | 8/28/05 | ME

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.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: badidea; evacuation; fema; govwatch; hurricanekatrina; mayor; neworleans; publicschools; stoopidvanity
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To: RightWhale

They have to be informed before they can make the decisions.
Many of these people are so backward that they do not have the technology to watch the storm progress. Not until the mayor declared mandatory evacuations did they know that there was an imminent threat.

They didnt know until 10:45 this morning. Most, if they've been able to leave @ all (many don't have cars), have not been able to get more than 100 miles away from New Orleans. Therefore because of the mayors indecision they are still in harms way.


61 posted on 08/28/2005 7:34:12 PM PDT by bamaroots04 (Kerry/Edwards: Let's Roll...over)
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To: bamaroots04

I would prefer my local elected officials to make the call.

Regardless of the mayor's decision, the citizens who have virtually the same info as the mayor have been free to leave.


62 posted on 08/28/2005 7:35:14 PM PDT by TC Rider (The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights Reserved.)
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To: coconutt2000

Okay, whatever.


63 posted on 08/28/2005 7:35:22 PM PDT by Not A Snowbird (Official RKBA Landscaper and Arborist, Duchess of Green Leafy Things)
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To: HoustonCurmudgeon

Talk about right to life.
Have you ever seen independence day? The movie. Same thing, government underestimates the threat, waits too long, and as a result the people are stuck in logjam traffic and unable to get to safety in time.
The responsible party in that movie was the federal govt. In this circumstance, it was the fed'l govt (President Bush to be specific) that had to beg the Mayor before he relented and issued the mandatory evacuation order.
Mayors dont want to acknowledge that their city is basically condemned to utter destruction seeing as it is surrounded by water, below sea level, and in the path of possibly the worst storm in US history.
The federal government is less concerned about a city getting destroyed as they are about the citizens of that city dying.
Until the president intervened, the mayor had determined to stay with the city. In the process, he abandoned his people despite the imminent threat they faced.


64 posted on 08/28/2005 7:38:42 PM PDT by bamaroots04 (Kerry/Edwards: Let's Roll...over)
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To: bamaroots04
People in that area know, or damn well l should know they live on a flood basin. You want to point fingers, point fingers at the morons who built the city there in the first place. the Minuit the word went out that the storm could hit the area, the people...the store owners and restaurants should have been shutting their doors and on the way out warn the tourists about the elevation of the city and to get out. But they did not... they waited for the titty.

And now some did not get to suckle enough, they blame the mayor. Stop blaming and take responsibility on yourself!

The mayor was on telling people to get out. This morning the Bush ordered him to...wow, big deal! If I watch the news in one of the fancy restaurants down town as I try to block out the fags, and I see a hurricane is approaching, I'm gone. Why is this so hard?

65 posted on 08/28/2005 7:38:50 PM PDT by sit-rep (If you acquire, hit it again to verify...)
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To: bamaroots04

Yeah. Right. Let's give them more power because they're smarter than all the rest of us.

The feds also need to take over day care scheduling, pricing guidlines for amusement park admissions, minimum vitamin A levels in carrots, humor content in Sunday comic strips, uniform color standards for describing blue skies, absorbency comparison standards for diapers, etc., etc., etc.

If people can't make up their own minds when to bug out, that's their problem. If their goverment screws up the civil end of disaster protocol, then can the spineless weasels in the next election.


66 posted on 08/28/2005 7:39:19 PM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (American by birth but a Zionist by logical interpretation of history.)
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To: bamaroots04
Many of these people are so backward

You must be a Damn Yankee!

67 posted on 08/28/2005 7:40:02 PM PDT by razorback-bert
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To: CaliGangsta

Most of the time poor people live in areas with other poor people. Therefore if the rest of the people are in the same condition of ignorance, then there isnt going to be anybody to recognize the threat and alert the neighborhood.


68 posted on 08/28/2005 7:40:36 PM PDT by bamaroots04 (Kerry/Edwards: Let's Roll...over)
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To: bamaroots04

Word gets around in the backwoods fairly quickly. If someone is so deep they can't be reached in 2-3 days by relatives or acquaintances they would be on their own anyway, and maybe the storm won't find them either. We don't need the Pres or the Mayor or Gov or the MSM to tell us what is going on. Those offices are already coordinating relief of the main population areas.


69 posted on 08/28/2005 7:41:47 PM PDT by RightWhale (Partly cloudy, 62 degrees, wind <7 knots in Fairbanks)
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To: bamaroots04

You, sir, have no sense. period.


70 posted on 08/28/2005 7:43:11 PM PDT by BlackjackPershing
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To: Alberta's Child

I thought about this earlier. I realized that a huge city like New Orleans probably has hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren riding buses and thousands of busdrivers to transport them. Especially given that school has recently started, the system is in place to transport hundreds of thousands of people.

Had they been ordered to evacuate earlier, they could have executed such a plan instead of simply resorting to sheltering as many people as could fit inside of the superdome and leaving the others that inevitably wont fit to fend for themselves.


71 posted on 08/28/2005 7:43:18 PM PDT by bamaroots04 (Kerry/Edwards: Let's Roll...over)
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To: bamaroots04
if the rest of the people are in the same condition of ignorance

They aren't. Some of those people are pretty bright and in touch. Some of them have known about this for a considerable time, be sure.

72 posted on 08/28/2005 7:44:09 PM PDT by RightWhale (Partly cloudy, 62 degrees, wind <7 knots in Fairbanks)
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To: bamaroots04

Did anybody see that 60 MINUTES about those nomadic "primitive" people in Thailand and Burma who lived right in the track of the worst part of the tsunami? They came out without a single casualty.

They don't have TVs. They don't have money. They don't speak the language of the countries they stay in. How did they survive the tsunami without government telling them what to do?


73 posted on 08/28/2005 7:44:27 PM PDT by AlexandriaDuke
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To: bamaroots04

Poor people are now by definition ignorant.


74 posted on 08/28/2005 7:45:01 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: bamaroots04
All I'm saying is that since New Orleans has many people living in extreme poverty. 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?

If the rest of your thinking is as off base as this you're in real trouble. There are about 850 TV sets per 1000 people in the US. That's people not households. There are also over 2,000 radios per 1,000 people. Very few people with an IQ above 80, would not know they should get out.

75 posted on 08/28/2005 7:46:12 PM PDT by HoustonCurmudgeon (I'm a Conservative but will not support evil just because it's "the law.")
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To: SandyInSeattle

Yes, the feds are not quite as attached to New Orleans as the mayor and local population is. Therefore, the feds have the clarity of judgment and objectivity to recognize however unfortunate that New Orleans is facing imminent destruction.
The locals are blinded by home-pride and denial to recognize that the land that their ancestors harvested is going to be wiped out. Who wants to acknowledge that their home will be destroyed and the above-ground tombs of their relatives will be swept around and littered throughout the land? The person that has no attachment to them.


76 posted on 08/28/2005 7:47:11 PM PDT by bamaroots04 (Kerry/Edwards: Let's Roll...over)
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To: bamaroots04
Most of the time poor people live in areas with other poor people. Therefore if the rest of the people are in the same condition of ignorance, then there isnt going to be anybody to recognize the threat and alert the neighborhood

What rock have you been living under??? I only ask that question to be nice....The real question is: Are you stoned or just stupid????
77 posted on 08/28/2005 7:47:20 PM PDT by ReeWalker ( I never have guilt EVER!!!)
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To: bamaroots04
All I'm saying is that since New Orleans has many people living in extreme poverty. 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?

What sort of "necessary resources" did Native Americans have?

78 posted on 08/28/2005 7:47:59 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (tagline)
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To: bamaroots04
"the locals understandably are incapable of making objective decisions"

THis being a Free country, it should be up to the owners to decide when it's time to evacuate. The job of the locals and feds is to advise. That's it.

79 posted on 08/28/2005 7:48:18 PM PDT by spunkets
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To: bamaroots04

You want to take control away from a LOCAL government and give it to CONGRESS?

In-frikkin-sane.


80 posted on 08/28/2005 7:48:57 PM PDT by porkchops 4 mahound (Gun control is repeatability of groups in the designated target area)
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