The Southern Louisiana Evacuation Plan specifically stated that people without private transportation were to be transported on public buses.
Here is the original post of the planThere were not just "200 buses". There were 200 buses in just one photo and Freepers studying the post-Katrina satellite images have counted over 400 buses altogether at other city parking.
At 70 people per bus that is 28,000 people per round trip that could have been taken out of the storm surge area in the 48 hours prior the Katrina striking.
After the storm hit, what makes you think that buses sent from outside of New Orleans could drive through the flooded mess any better than the 145 New Orleans city buses that were parked 1.2 miles away from the Superdome?
Was Scotty supposed to beam the outside buses to the Superdome and them beam them back out so that they would not have to drive through impassable roads?
The time to evacuate those 200,000 low-income people on public buses OUT OF THE STORM SURGE ZONE was BEFORE the Category 4 storm struck.
That was what the Southern Louisiana Evacuation Plan for New Orleans specifically called for.
The Democrat Governor and the Democrat Mayor did NOTHING to carry out that portion of the plan. They left 200,000 low-income resident abandoned and they now blame the Federal Government for not having Scotty beam down a massive logistics effort after a human disaster of their own making.
Sorry if your panties are in a wad, but i'm not the author of this piece, just the one who posted it on Free Republic.
You are not the only one who zeroes in on the number of buses floating around without either a driver or passengers, buses that could have been used to evacuate thousands of New Orleaners to higher ground.
But they weren't, so let's concentrate on what this article is attempting to point out, can we?
A full 35% of black households in New Orleans don't own a car. We could ask why and I'm sure there are several reasons that could be given. One of the reasons is that it's too expensive to own a car. Another might be that auto theft is common in New Orleans, so the less you own the less there is to take.
But the reason that Randal O'Toole concentrates on in this article is that many residents feel they don't really need a car. This segment of the population has become dependent on public transportation for getting around.
And public transportation, as good as it may be in New Orleans, cannot and will not replace the good ol' private automobile when it's time to get out of town in a hurry.
This is not blaming the victims but rather is a critique of the urban environment in which they live, one that encourages dependency and stifles individual initiative.
Note the major investments New Orleans has made over the past 20 years to run trolleys on Canal Street, with plans to also resurrect the Desire line. Tourists may like it, but how much do these streetcars help those who have to rely on public transportation? It's doubtful they helped much in evacuating the city prior to the hurricane's arrival last Monday.
If you consider all the factors - below sea-level location, inadequate levees/canals/pumping stations, poorly functioning public transportation, police getting a sudden case of blue flu - along with an apparent inability on the part of civic authorities to get the word out to all residents that this was a severe storm about to hit - it's a miracle that those without cars of their own survived at all.