Mayor Says New Orleans Is Better Prepared

AP via Yahoo! News ^ | 03/21/206 | Michelle Roberts

[GeneD]

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans is better prepared for the upcoming hurricane season because of stronger flood walls and better evacuation plans after Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Ray Nagin said in an interview Tuesday.

"We should be able to sustain another Katrina," the mayor said.

"If a Category 5 hits us, probably the city will be gone and the levees will still be standing. The work they're doing is just incredible," Nagin said of ongoing work by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps, which designed and built the city's levees, has been heavily criticized by residents who note the city survived the worst of the Aug. 29 storm but then was swamped when flood walls broke, inundating 80 percent of the city with brackish water. Many have expressed fear about the condition of the levees as the June 1 start of hurricane season approaches.

But Nagin told The Associated Press he's confident the Corps is using better materials and designs on the levees.

He also said that evacuating the city in the event of another hurricane should be smoother in the future. He said he would be in closer contact with forecasters at the National Hurricane Center so he'll know quickly whether a mandatory evacuation will be needed. The one ordered two days before Katrina hit was the city's first.

Nagin predicted residents would be more likely to comply with evacuation orders now. He said residents would be bused away from the city rather than to shelters like the Superdome, where residents were stranded in hot, dank conditions for days after Katrina hit in late August.

"People are pretty attuned to leaving if I say you have to leave, so I don't see that as being as much of a challenge," he said.

Nagin is up for re-election April 22 and facing a slate of two dozen candidates.

While campaigning, he has focused on rebuilding the city. On Monday, he endorsed a proposal that would allow all residents to rebuild homes in neighborhoods shattered by the hurricanes. An advisory commission had recommended flooded neighborhoods be replaced with parks and the city go slow in rebuilding low-lying areas.

[Hoodlum91]

"He also said that evacuating the city in the event of another hurricane should be smoother in the future"

That's because everyone is out already.

[BenLurkin]

Especially the hard core losers.

[muawiyah]

Yes, most New Orleansians are far better prepared this time ~ they are already OUT OF TOWN.

[HEY4QDEMS]

New Orleans is better prepared for the upcoming hurricane season because of stronger flood walls and better evacuation plans

And two thirds less people.

[Zavien Doombringer]

Nagin told The Associated Press he's confident the Corps is using better materials and designs on the levees.

"and also... they aren't planting the explosives this time..."

[garyhope]

If only New Orleans can weather Nagin, Blanco, all the corruption, race and welfare pimps, perhaps they'll survive.

[mmyers]

Dumbass nagin has to Give the evacuation order fist!

[308MBR]

Bingo on that. The really funny thing is the ones who are still out of town couldn't GET out of town when they needed to go, since they were all waiting on their welfare checks.

[D-Chivas]

While campaigning, he has focused on rebuilding the city. On Monday, he endorsed a proposal that would allow all residents to rebuild homes in neighborhoods shattered by the hurricanes.

Will they all be on 30 foot stilts for when the levees go again?

[kingu]

First.. Uhh, Mayor? That's the Mississippi, not De Nile. A heavy storm would tax your city, forget about something as big as Katrina. You're a sitting duck for the next five to ten years as engineers try to figure out the problem, and you're lying to people if you tell them any different.

Second, come on. Who in their right mind would leave New Orleans again? If you ducked out of town at the start, odds are you got the shaft from all the freebies. Nope, better to stick it out with an ice cooler and a nice bit of high ground, and then get evacuated by whatever authorities are left. That's a $75,000 difference on average.

And finally, just be glad that there's twenty bozos after your job, because odds are they're going to split the vote from the residents left and you're going to be able to coast in on just the out of town vote. Personally, I think you deserve to be sitting in a jail cell, along with a whole lot of other people.

[LA Woman3]

"We should be able to sustain another Katrina," the mayor said.

Nagin is as sharp as a piece of melted chocolate....

[blam]

"He said residents would be bused away from the city rather than to shelters like the Superdome, where residents were stranded in hot, dank conditions for days after Katrina hit in late August."

Did anyone ask him where they would be bussed to?

[Dog Gone]

The mayor should also clarify in advance that the cops will loot with his official blessing.

[kromike]

"We should be able to sustain another Katrina," the mayor said.

(Nagin impression)..."We have reinforced the levees with rebar made of dark chocolate and delicious white milk."

[stylin19a]

um....was Katrina a CAT 5 ?

[Tarpon]

Preemption doctrine, leave now, avoid the rush :^)

[rawcatslyentist]

Here's the new bus design!

And here are the drivers!

[tx_eggman]

"He also said that evacuating the city in the event of another hurricane should be smoother in the future"

That's because everyone is out already.

If Houston gets hit this summer we're planning on forwarding them all on to Albuquerque