More photos re the buses and the short distance from the N O's bus yard to the dome.
Thanks to Paleo Conservative for compiling this sequence of very damning photos and Prime Choice for his great graphic arts summary:
Posted on 09/05/2005 12:14:06 AM PDT by HAL9000
Frustrated and grieving, Mayor Ray Nagin on Sunday again ripped the painfully slow response of state and federal authorities to the plight of tens of thousands of stranded New Orleanians in the days following Hurricane Katrina, saying their inaction cost lives and caused needless misery.Nagin singled out Gov. Kathleen Blanco for criticism, saying that the governor had asked for 24 hours to think over a decision when time was a luxury that no one, especially refugees, had.
“When the president and the governor got here, I said, 'Mr. President, Madame Governor, you two have to get in synch. If you don't, more people are going to die.”
Blanco and Bush met privately at his insistence, Nagin said, after which Bush came out and told Nagin that he had given Blanco two options, and she requested a full day to decide.
“It would have been great if we could have walked off Air Force One and told the world we had it all worked out,” Nagin said. “It didn't happen, and more people died.”
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
I'm not a photoshop jockey. I just found various pictures on previous Free Republic threads and copied the URL's to a text file. That way I can just cut and paste them into a reply box.
5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.
Moreover, section D. Organization and Assignment of Responsibilities, page 11, paragraph 7 states:
7. Parishes: Conduct and control local evacuation in parishes located in the risk area and manages reception and shelter operations in parishes located in the host area.
those pictures will be world famous by Tuesday morning...
Why wouldn't he want to be in that meeting? Why would he have to insist on a private meeting? This sounds as though he was having two subordinates work out something he was only supervising.
At one point early on (I think it was Monday) we Freepers that were still worried about the possibility of flooding, were attacked here. There were I think 3 people working together to ridicule us as 'crying wolf'. I got the impression that they were operating in the same room, if you know what I mean. Thats was after Shemp floated the 'New Orleans Dodged a Bullet' story. It was really weird the way the story changed so drastically so quickly. All of of sudden because the last measured max speed dropped a few MPH and the track shifted slightly, "New Orleans Dodged a Bullet". If I was one of those conspiratorial type individuals, and I took a look back across everything that happened, its almost as if they were going to use this natural disaster, and lull Bush into a slow response. Then hit him with the nasty press coverage we saw later in the week. Thank goodness I am not one of those conspiratorial types.
I put together the 1.2 miles /145 buses pic using Google Earth and the Katrina template overlay.
When your enemies are trying to knife each to death, there's only one thing to do... grap the popcorn.
Bush originally gave Blanco three choices, but the first one was ruled out of hand. They were:
1- Lead
2- Follow
3- Get the h*ll out of the way
Until he answers that question, I have a naggin' feelin' Nagin's career is toast.
And a lot of them that stayed, wanted to stay and loot.
This mayor and this govenor have shown themselves to be inept and in over their heads.
Both should be in charge of some condo association not high office.
In an evacuation, buses would be dispatched along their regular routes throughout the city to pick up people and go to the Superdome, which would be used as a staging area. From there, people would be taken out of the city to shelters to the north.
Some experts familiar with the plans say they won't work.
"That's never going to happen because there's not enough buses in the city," said Charley Ireland, who retired as deputy director of the New Orleans Office of Emergency Preparedness in 2000. "Between the RTA and the school buses, you've got maybe 500 buses, and they hold maybe 40 people each. It ain't going to happen."
The plan has other potential pitfalls.
No signs are in place to notify the public that the regular bus stops are also the stops for emergency evacuation. In Miami Beach, Fla., every other bus stop sports a huge sign identifying it as a hurricane evacuation stop.
It's also unclear whether the city's entire staff of bus drivers will remain. A union spokesman said that while drivers are aware of the plan, the union contract lacks a provision requiring them to stay.
If you can expect a reasonable lead time in the call to evacutate (=trust the leadership), then you can expect bus drivers to do it. But if the leadership waits until the storm is ten feet offshore, then I wouldn't hang around, either. I'd get my family and go. You can drive a bus anywhere.
A similar plan in Monroe County, Fla. -- the Florida Keys -- failed during Georges when drivers opted out. "The problem is that we may have the buses but we don’t have the drivers," said Irene Toner, director of the county’s emergency management office. "In Hurricane Georges we had 25 people on our bus-driver list and only five showed up."
There's no doubt that Nagin's indecision and lack of leadership was a problem, but to some extent, it appears that his hands were tied by the city unions.
More photos re the buses and the short distance from the N O's bus yard to the dome.
Thanks to Paleo Conservative for compiling this sequence of very damning photos and Prime Choice for his great graphic arts summary:
If my memory is correct, on the first day this super hurricane appeared to be seriously threatening New Orleans, the Mayor himself said something to the effect of 'This is the Real Deal'. I think thats what he said.
Hey more than you know, my daughter is taking copies of the LOTS, not just one lot mind you, and copies of maps of their location to school for show - n - tell.
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