National Hurricane Director had to call Nagin at home Saturday night to plead: "Get people out..."

Knight Ridder Newspapers ^ | Sun, Aug. 28, 2005 | BY MARC CAPUTO, DAVID OVALLE AND ERIKA BOLSTAD

[joinedafterattack]

MAYOR CRITICIZED EVEN BEFORE LEVY BREAK. National Hurricane Center Director had to call Nagin at home Saturday night to plead: "Get people out of New Orleans." "The criticisms of Nagin came from above as well. Numerous officials urged him to evacuate the city, but he worried about the legality of ordering people out when New Orleans has few safe hurricane shelters. Also, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield in Miami called Nagin at home Saturday night and told him: Get people out of New Orleans.

''I could never sleep if I felt like I didn't do everything that I could to impress upon people the gravity of the situation,'' Mayfield said. ``New Orleans is never going to be the same.''

When a grim Nagin issued the mandatory evacuation order Sunday, he said: ``We are facing a storm that most of us have feared . . . God bless us.''

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Tons of dollars have been thrown at local authorities. They were supposed to be using them to train and prepare.

Hoo boy, after 9/11 it was raining money from Washington if you were a local yokel PD. I saw a thing on TV, it might have been John Stossel, where they showed all these penny ante PD's in Mulescratch TN buying bomb defusing trucks and lord knows what all else. They said have you used this stuff yet, and the response was "no but we're fixing to".

[HIDEK6]

They look like those people who are waiting for someone else to pick up the lunch tab.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

You mean another Chuckie Schumer? I recently heard a rumor that the NYPD used to pull Chuckie out of the bathhouses on a regular basis during the 80s. Think I heard it here on FR.

[kcvl]

We can only hope that New Orleans will never be the same.

I thought that I was the only person on the planet who didn't like New Orleans. It was dirty, stinky, full of freaks and depressing, IMO.

[1035rep]

Also noticed that the libs over at DU are hearing the same thing. Here is there post:

Member (1000+ posts) Sat Sep-03-05 09:43 PM
Original message
"I've lost all hope of people recognizing whose negligence this was I just had dinner with about 50 of my husbands family members and I have never been so depressed. Only two fundies in the lot and they all want the mayor and governor thrown in jail and think it is unfair to "blame Bush for mother nature'........ I explained my heart out and they still are starting a letter writing campaign to cnn,msnbc,fox,ect....
I'm heart broken!"

[HIDEK6]

Suppose, say, Detroit were hit by a disaster such as NO.

You have touched on something I have been thinking about all day today.

If I'm running a terrorist cell and want to have maximum effect, I would look for some way to have a catastrophe in a large city with a lawless and barely restrained underclass with a corrupt political leadership (I guess those last two things go hand in hand).

I would try to engineer some sort of horrific event in Philadelphia.

There are more people there than in Detroit, but, in its day, Detroit would have been a good place to try it, too.

[Polybius]

This FR thread shows what the Mayor should have known in regards to what would happen if a Catagory 4 Hurricane ever hit New Orleans.

Hurricane Pam Exercise Concludes.(2004 New Orleans Disaster Prediction) U.S. Government FEMA news release | July 23, 2004 |

[gpapa]

The local authorities, including police, under an emergency order, can use anything of value to protect life and property. Can a policeman duck behind a private car to protect himself in an isolated sniper incident. Yes. Can a fireman chop holes in a roof to put a fire out. Yes. If the mayor did not issue such an order, and potentially hundreds of people died or were injured as a result, he is responsible.

[Bush gal in LA]

I hope I'm wrong about this but, more and more this looks to me, like a case of terrible incompetence and neglect by both the Governor and the mayor. I think the mayor knew he didn't have anyplace to put the people who couldn't get out and he was probably thinking, even if he did call for the evacuation where would these people go and who would pay for it. THE CITY? Him? Certainly not! He also probably thought it would be another false alarm so why bother.?! UUUgghh!....... And that Governor Blanco ? Every time I see her face, she looks like a deer caught in headlights!She is definitely afraid of something! I think she knows she screwed up big time and is praying the RATS call for Bush to take the blame for this,(like they do for everything else in this world) before people go back and start examining what really happened in this terrible tragedy!

[longshadow]

Save that thing. It would save a lot of work when the indictment is written.

He may get indicted, buy there won't be a trial after his remark on TV tonite about the CIA wanting to "wipe him out" -- he's got a perfect insanity defense!

;-)

[Calpernia]

Another tidbit that goes well with this story:

Check out evacuation instructions from NOLA website
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475714/posts?page=26#26

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475714/posts?page=141#141

>>>The main responsibility and authority for operational aspects of evacuation in Orleans Parish lies with the Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) within the Chief Administrative Office of the City. The authority to make the final decisions related to an evacuation rests with the Mayor of New Orleans.

Office of Emergency Preparedness: http://www.neworleanscert.org

OEP Mission Statement The Office of Emergency Preparedness is responsible for the response and coordination of those actions needed to protect the lives and property of its citizens from natural or man-made disasters as well as emergency planning for the City of New Orleans. Our primary responsibility is to advise the Mayor, the City Council and Chief Administrative Officer regarding emergency preparedness activities and operations. We coordinate all city departments and allied state and federal agencies which respond to city-wide disasters and emergencies through the development and constant updating of an integrated multi-hazard plan. All requests for federal disaster assistance and federal funding subsequent to disaster declarations are also made through this office.Our authority is defined by the Louisiana Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act of 1993, Chapter 6 Section 709, Paragraph B:

"FOR CERT INFORMATION ONLY" CONTACT Lt. Col. Tom Miller, AC5TM At 504 715-7185 (For CERT Info. Only)

New Orleans Community Emergency Response Team

CERT Divisions:

Updated Information Coming Soon

Member Information:

Members exercise medical skills during a CERT class.

Capt. Mike Smolek CERT Class.

NOTHING HERE

2003 CERT Graduation

NO CLASS OF 2003? No other Members listed on the site. Updated Information Coming Soon????

NOTHING ON THE SITE ABOUT HURRICANES.

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1476538/posts?page=311#311

[Fishtalk]

Man oh man.

Well, there's no denying the truth on this one. IT'll be kind of fun watching the pretzel=twisting to bend the truth on this one.

The American people are not going to buy it. Oh the busy Moms and Dads, the law-abiding people of this country, they won't take up placards and march. It's part of the problem of our system, "problem" being said softly. There's no better way. But the PEOPLE only get to vote every couple of years. In between we got to listen to the nuts. That's the hole the Lamestream plays around in.

But hey, there's focus groups and polls. Goodness, Cindy Sheehan is a prime example of how you can only urinate upon our feet for and tell us it's raining. How disappointed were those polls to the "progressives" who would bring us a new world order?

Give the people who carry this country on their backs, ie...US, some credit. The American people will handle this. Dear Lord look at Houston. Wherever would we have been without them.

Those folks who were betrayed by the officials they voted for in payment for a pack of smokes will get back on their feet.

A large percentage will go back to their original kind of life. Although probably in Texas and I'm sure Texas knew that ahead of time.

But quite a few will get an opportunity to turn it around. Enough to tell a story. Enough to learn a lesson. Enough to make some of us wiser. Enough will realize they were told to go to the Superdome and then left to rot and stink like animals. Enough will realize that decent Americans found that despicable and didn't turn their backs on them.

I am frankly beyond impressed by how well the feds got their act together enough and on such a grand scale.

Even as I type the major problems are over. They are now rescuing PETS.

Amazing. And how about the amazement going on at that Astrodome?

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1476538/posts?page=311#311

[HIDEK6]

That was funny.

Another poster, however, pointed out that the CIA works overseas.

The FBI would be the ones to rub him out.

[IrishRainy]

I wonder if Nagin decided not to use the school buses to save gas. There was a good chance the hurricane would turn so why waste gas on the poor people for nothing?

[longshadow]

The Mayor said earlier that he was worried about the legality of issuing a mandatory evacuation order.

read post #103.

The Emergency Hurricane Plan of the city of New Orleans website specifically states the mayor has the statutory authority to order an evacuation. If there were any legal doubts, don't you think they would have been addressed at the time the plan was being written? He's either lying, or he didn't have any clue what his own Hurricane Plan said.

[Bush gal in LA]

''That is why the RATS are going nuts! The main people in power were RATS''..............That is so funny !My boyfriend remarked to me today that ''Even for RATS, the finger pointing at Bush to take the blame for this, and the ''race card ''thing this early in the game, is so classless EVEN for RATS! Even after 911 they waited a while before they started blaming him........Reading your post I now know why they are pointing the finger at Bush so early and getting hysterical........ To take the heat off themselves!

[Smelly_Fed]

Dems are trying to refute the mayor's ability to use those buses by saying they didn't have drivers. Well one name answers that ridiculous junior-rate defense...



Jabbar Gibson



Jabbar was the 20 year old man who had never driven a bus, didnt have a CDL but commandeered a bus, filled it with strangers and drove it to Houston... the first bust of Orleanians to arrive in Houston. Since DU'ers have probably never driven anything larger then a battery-powered golf part, and many DU'ers read this forum.. let me help you. It doesn't take much to drive a bus. (It works like a car, it's just longer). You gotta watch your turns, it isn't a sports car but pretty much you push the big pedal on the right to speed up and the little one on the left to slow down.

Next week we'll review how to pull the big handle on the left of your seat to put out your stop sign.