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The city of New Orleans followed virtually no aspect of its own emergency management plan in the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans officials also failed to implement most federal guidelines, which stated that the Superdome was not a safe shelter for thousands of residents.

The mayor of New Orleans, a harsh critic of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, is coming under increasing fire for exacerbating the disaster by not properly implementing his city's emergency-management plan. A high-ranking Department of Homeland Security official, who asked not to be identified, yesterday said local leaders have known for years that the city's levees were not adequate to protect the Big Easy if it was struck by a Category 3 or greater hurricane. The official, who also questioned the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) slow response to the disaster, said Mayor C. Ray Nagin knew the National...

EXECUTIVE ORDER KBB 05-31 Emergency Evacuation by Buses WHEREAS, the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act, R.S. 29:721, et seq ., confers upon the governor of the state of Louisiana emergency powers to deal with emergencies and disasters, including those caused by fire, flood, earthquake or other natural or man-made causes, to ensure that preparations of this state will be adequate to deal with such emergencies or disasters, and to preserve the lives and property of the citizens of the state of Louisiana; WHEREAS, pursuant to Proclamation No. 48 KBB 2005, a state of emergency was declared...

EXECUTIVE ORDER KBB 04-20 Louisiana Emergency Operations Plan WHEREAS, the state of Louisiana must be prepared to respond in a coordinated, effective, and efficient manner to all emergencies and disasters to which it is subjected; WHEREAS, effective preparation, including the development of an emergency operations plan which is coordinated between all the departments and agencies of the state of Louisiana, increases the ability of the state to mitigate the adverse effects of emergencies and/or disasters; and WHEREAS, the state of Louisiana will best achieve effective coordinated emergency planning by updating the state's current emergency operations order and by the Military...

Cancer patient Earl Robicheaux, his immune system depleted by radical chemotherapy, lay in a hospital bed as Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans. Trying to leave, he thought, seemed suicidal. But after four days in the hospital's reeking darkness, he escaped via a Black Hawk helicopter that landed on the roof of the University Hospital under heavy guard because of the threat of sniper fire. It was not the evacuation plan authorities had envisioned for its sick, its elderly and its poor. As the floodwaters recede, serious questions remain about whether New Orleans and Louisiana officials followed their own...

Cancer patient Earl Robicheaux, his immune system depleted by radical chemotherapy, lay in a hospital bed as Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans. Trying to leave, he thought, seemed suicidal. But after four days in the hospital's reeking darkness, he escaped via a Black Hawk helicopter that landed on the roof of the University Hospital under heavy guard because of the threat of sniper fire. It was not the evacuation plan authorities had envisioned for its sick, its elderly and its poor. As the floodwaters recede, serious questions remain about whether New Orleans and Louisiana officials followed their own...

WASHINGTON - The retired admiral who played a key role in drafting the Homeland Security Department's catastrophic emergency plan said the agency was too hesitant in executing it in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

From National Hazards Observer, Nov. 2004 What If Hurricane Ivan Had Not Missed New Orleans Shirley Laska Residents who did not have personal transportation were unable to evacuate even if they wanted to. Approximately 120,000 residents (51,000 housing units x 2.4 persons/unit) do not have cars. A proposal made after the evacuation for Hurricane Georges to use public transit buses to assist in their evacuation out of the city was not implemented for Ivan. If Ivan had struck New Orleans directly it is estimated that 40-60,000 residents of the area would have perished. Unwilling to merely accept this reality, emergency...

At least one major media outlet has finally noticed that New Orleans had an emergency response plan for hurricances and evacuations that somehow never got implemented. ABC News yesterday asked why Mayor Ray Nagin not only did not follow the plan, but actively sent non-evacuees to a site that had no preparations to handle them: New Orleans' own comprehensive emergency plan raises the specter of "having large numbers of people … stranded" and promises "the city … will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas." "Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport...

AMAZING! Of course they Bush bash still, some ol same ol, but look at this.... The evacuation It was announced at a news conference by the Mayor Ray Nagin on Sunday 28 August, less than 24 hours before the hurricane struck early the next morning. The question has to be asked: Why was it not ordered earlier? The Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said at the same news conference that President Bush had called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation. The night before, National Hurricane Director Max Mayfield had called Mayor Nagin to tell him that an evacuation was needed....

The Evacuation Plan Mayor Nagin Failed to ImplementClick here to listen to the entire transcript detailed below via Windows Media Player stream (from the guest/free section of Rush's site) RUSH: Folks, I'm sorry. I would have led off the program with this. I have been under a terrible misconception. I thought by now everybody would have known that there was a documented, detailed evacuation plan for the city of New Orleans that was not implemented at all. But I'm reading my e-mail, "Well, I never heard of this." Now, I didn't get a chance to spend the whole weekend watching...

September 04, 2005 Katrina: Why Didn't Nagin Follow His Own Plan? Mark Tapscott, one of the best crossover bloggers and a fierce researcher, turned up an interesting document yesterday: the New Orleans comprehensive hurricane disaster plan. The plan exists on line and has a high level of detail, and yet the Exempt Media has given no coverage of its contents. The most obvious reason is that it shows that New Orleans and the state of Louisiana didn't follow their own plan. For example, the plan has this to say about the responsibility for evacuations: The safe evacuation of threatened populations...

I asked a question on a few threads. "Who is in a State Governor's chain of command?" "Who takes over when the Governor cannot or will not perform his or her duties." I know for sure that it is NOT the President of the United States. I joined the Air Force a looong time ago. I quickly learned I have a Chain of Command. If my immediate rater is gone (planned or not) or if my rater drops the ball I am required to pick up the slack. I may be mistaken but I think the civilian world works in...

1) Why Didn't Louisiana Follow it's Emergency Plan? Why isn't anyone talking about this? 2) Why hasn't anyone mentioned that a Pre-Requisite for a Federal Response BY LAW is that State Law is Executed and the Emergency Plan is Executed FIRST? 3) Why did the Governor abandon the City of New Orleans for the Safety of Baton Rouge, before the Plan was Executed? 4) Why, when the federal Government was acting in accordance with the Stafford Act, did the State of Louisiana, by its Governors acts, delay making requests when being told this storm was going to hit? 5) Why...

State of Louisiana Constitution Article IV, Section 5: Duties and Responsibilities of the Governor Pp (i), section (J): "Commander-in-Chief. The governor shall be commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the state, except when they are called into service of the federal government. He may call out these forces to preserve law and order, to suppress insurrection, to repel invasion, or in other times of emergency." Why have none of the Dinosaur Media noted this? Blanco blew it big time. She should have mobilized the Guard imemdiately after the storm instead of crying on TV and doing nothing, waiting for the...

THE deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina are heart-rending. The suffering of survivors is wrenching. Property destruction is shocking. But perhaps the most agonizing part is that much of what happened in New Orleans this week might have been avoided. Watching the TV images of the storm approaching the Mississippi Delta on last Sunday, I was sick to my stomach. Not only because I knew the hell it could unleash (I wrote an article for Scientific American in 2001 that described the very situation that was unfolding) but because I knew that a large-scale engineering plan called Coast 2050 — developed...

Here's part of the plan. 3. The ESF 3 will work with emergency organizations such as LOHSEP and regional emergency task forces to ensure that the state’s infrastructure is adequate to support traffic flows in large scale evacuations. Particular attention will be paid to hurricane evacuation routes in the southern part of the state. Levees and flood control structures will be designed, built and maintained to contain potential large scale floods.[SNIP] 2. If a hurricane emergency develops, the ESF 3 Coordinator will work with all state and local authorities to manage evacuation of people in the threatened area(s).[SNIP] The State...