"8:44 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco bristled at suggestions Louisiana perhaps didn't make enough preparations for a devastating hurricane, possibly worsening the devastation.
"We begged all of those people, the mayors begged those people, the parish presidents begged those people to get out," she said at a press briefing when questioned about the state's preparedness efforts."
Yet they didn't even open both sides of the freeway...they obviously had no comprehensive evacuation plan already in place (i.e., they could have pre-planned and informed the public of locations of evacuation stations in each parish years ago, so people would know where to get on a bus if they lacked transportation)...and they had not much of a response ready when disaster finally struck. I don't expect them to have had something up and running like clockwork when a disaster of this magnitude strikes, but it seems there was no plan in place at *all*, even for how to immediately service the needs at the Superdome. FReepers and bloggers predicted before the hurricane even hit what the conditions would be like in the Dome if it lost power, and they were correct. That's something a disaster preparedness team could have planned for years ago.
Her constituents she's talking about here, it should be pointed out.
There is something I would like to ask but am afraid to because of post #1. I realize many people have friends and loved ones in the area - including our own FReeper friends.
Were any of the bridges closed down before Katrina hit? Or were they all still open and packed with people trying to leave town? Some of the pictures posted around of the "gone" Twin Span have cars in the wreckage, so I am unsure as to what happened.
Shepherd Smith seemed pretty upset about that. I hope he's able to get some sleep. He's burned out.
I can understand why some people stayed, they had no way out. BUT, this was known before the storm hit. The mayor stated as much. He was willing to have them stay as was the gov. In fact it took a call from Bush to make the evac mandatory.
Now, if this had been a properly run and lead city. School buses would have been loaded up. mayor would have made it a priority to get poor people out. The airport was not being used. Gov and City could have prompted airlines to take people. There is so much that could have been done. Of course this is all hindsight talking too. We can't fix the ineptness. Hopefully other cities are watching and building proper plans.
Brings a new meaning to Vote or die.
I'm no city planner, but what about keeping several military cargo planes there to help evacuate, and what about having a 24-hour-plan to get everyone out of the city? One route for personal vehicles (both lanes going out), one route for mass transit (all city busses ferry everyone they can out for free), keep commercial planes flying in (but empty), etc.?
It sounds to me that they were just praying it would never happen.