Replies

BurbankKarl:A freeper emailed the school district...and they responded. They said the drivers were told to evacuate like everyone else....and they left well ahead of Sunday.

Sunday? Really. Anyway, I never saw that. I'd be interested in reading if you can recall the thread or the FReeper.

bboop:No, Nagin said he did not want to use the school buses. He said something like, "I want luxury Grayhounds! Get them here from all over the country." But instead, at the stamp of his little pouty foot, he got -- a levee break.

I recall it. At the time the photos of all those buses were starting to circulate. I thought his screaming was to distract attention from the flooded buses.

randita:I don't think anyone expected the regular school bus drivers to assist in this emergency, but it's not rocket science to drive a bus -- they're all automatic transmission anymore. There should have been a plan in place to provide people to drive these busses in an emergency -- perhaps city employees of some type or another.

Exactly. There should have been a plan. And clearly, there wasn't. Even after the inadequacies of their emergency drill last year. They knew the problem very clearly. They completely failed to prepare. And when it was too late they played the blame-game.

plain talk:They didn't need the school bus drivers. They weren't going to school. All they needed were the bus keys and some brains. For that matter police could have driven the busses which makes more sense than sending 40% of them home to areas expected to flood.

There might be some legal implications. But these are good points.

dawn53:Nobody's really asking the question, but the question that needs to be asked is, "Why did you wait so long to order an evacuation?" By the time they ordered the evac, it was too late, and I think they knew it.

They hoped Katrina would miss them. And it mostly did. Then the levees broke. Still, the complete inadequacy of their planning is plain enough. Look at the results and realize these incompetents were actually very lucky.

Jotmo:Bus drivers are irrelevant. Anyone who can drive a stick, can drive a school bus, and ALL city transit busses are automatic. Any politician who would let the lack of correct paperwork on the part of the drivers hold up an evacuation should be lynched.

I assume there would be legal liability issues for unlicensed drivers. There's always a lawyer lurking somewhere. Still, there must have been some drivers left in the city when flooding began. I think the problem was lack of preparation and the media circus and the genera failure by so many agencies. Command-and-control was a bigger failure than the actual forces they had at their disposal. And Blanco's failure to move the Guard in quickly enough was a disaster.

Whew, answered you all...