Why where these Blanco Buses ununsed ?
Posted on 09/02/2005 10:24:39 AM PDT by texas_mrs
General Evacuation Guidelines
General evacuation for disasters apply to both natural (hurricane, flood, thunderstorm, tornado) and man-made (chemical and fire). If you are told to EVACUATE you should move to a place designated by public officials.
Follow these steps:
Stay calm.
Take your disaster supply kit.
Remember as you leave your house to do the following:
- Turn off lights, household gas appliances, heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems.
- Leave refrigerator/freezer on.
- Lock house.
Only use the phone in case of an emergency, injury, or illness. If you must use the phone, keep calls brief. Do not listen to rumors. Turn on your radio or television for up-to-date information from public officials during an emergency.
Use only one vehicle for your family. If you have room, assist any neighbors that may need a ride.
Tune to Emergency Alerting System 870 AM or 101.9 FM radio stations for reports about evacuation routes, conditions, etc. Use those travel routes specified. Drive safely. Traffic will be heavy. Law enforcement officials along the route will help with traffic.
If you need a ride, try to go with a neighbor, friend, or relative.
Let others know when you leave and where you are going.
Make arrangements for pets. Animals are not allowed in public shelters. Pet carriers are recommended along with pet supplies.
did you see this?
Great thread.
Driving a school bus is not rocket science. They could have been driven by volunteers.
As for the regular drivers, they were probably out making undocumented purchases with indefinite payment plans at a local Walmart, convenience store, liquor store, etc.
Except of course for the guys with the M-16s who are telling you not to.
'Many refugees have complained that they are not being allowed to walk out of downtown to a safer area. Refugees said authorities are preventing them from taking a Crescent City Connection bridge out of downtown and forcing them to turn around toward downtown's Superdome, the processing center for evacuees to be bused.'
'The commander of the Louisiana National Guard, Maj. Gen. Bennett Landreneau, said that "once positive control has been implemented" in downtown New Orleans, authorities will certainly be considering allowing people to evacuate by foot.'
source - Chicago Tribune
It's an urban area - Don't they have the equivalent of tornado sirens? If we have a tornado threat, it's pretty hard to miss the dozens of extremely loud sirens located all over the city.
I find it hard to believe that a city located below sea level wasn't similarly equipped.
Well, if city had a plan for emergency evac, they would have a list of drivers. Call them in and start evac routes. All Mayor could offer was free bus service to sites inside the city :(.
Also, I heard airlines are bringing planes in for evac purposes. They should have been used as well. They canceled flights and left people stranded. They had no business doing that.
Thats a gem!
Yep, and Saturday and Sunday a New Orleans TV station was stating that people who left pets behind would be prosecuted for animal cruelty. So no doubt at least some people didn't evacuate because they had pets. Regardless of what you feel about pets, it was a bad idea to discourage anyone from leaving.
And it was idiotic and almost criminally negligent to leave dozens of buses parked when they could have moved hundreds or thousands of people to safety.
I didn't know that! Very interesting.
The finger pointing here is disgusting.
Why where these Blanco Buses ununsed ?
Right. The city's plan was not to evacuate those people but locate them in shelters and the Superdome. That is a Class 2/3 hurricane plan. This was a Class 5 hurricane. They had no Class 4/5 hurricane plan apparently.
Next to that sad photo should be a picture of the reefer trucks used as mortuaries. The two images are bookends, enclosing a series of volumes on Ethics: "Choice and Consquence".
I posted this to another thread last night, but the information may of interest to some here. According to some quick research, I estimate the total number of school buses in Orleans county to be at least 325 and the number of city buses to be about the same. Surely at least some of these could have driven north before the storm hit with some people on board and saved both life and property at the same time. I gather the city's extensive emergency plan did not include attempting to save either one.
.................
http://www.ersys.com/usa/22/2255000/ptranbus.htm
333 public transit buses
1996-1998 data
....................
http://www.doe.state.la.us/lde/scs/661.html
324 Orleans Parish school buses
02-03 data
I'm surprised they didn't toss in, "make sure you have a quarter and are wearing clean underwear."
As Rush said the other day. If the libs can get all these guys to polls in one day, why didn't they mobilize to get them out of town?
Doesn't matter. If 30 people were assigned to each bus, surely 1 person out of the 30 could drive the bus. All they needed was some leadership and the car keys.
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