Offer of buses fell between the cracks -ChiTrib

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- Two days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, as images of devastation along the Gulf Coast and despair in New Orleans flickered across television screens, the head of one of the nation's largest bus associations repeatedly called federal disaster officials to offer help.

Peter Pantuso of the American Bus Association said he spent much of the day on Wednesday, Aug. 31, trying to find someone at the Federal Emergency Management Agency who could tell him how many buses were needed for an evacuation, where they should be sent and who was overseeing the effort.

"We never talked directly to FEMA or got a call back from them," Pantuso said.

Pantuso, whose members include some of the nation's largest motor coach companies, including Greyhound and Coach USA, eventually learned that the job of extracting tens of thousands of residents from flooded New Orleans wasn't being handled by FEMA at all.

Instead the agency had farmed the work out to a trucking logistics firm, Landstar Express America, which in turn hired a limousine company, which in turn engaged a travel management company.

........MORE..........

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0509230350sep23,1,1064399.story?coll=chi-news-hed

[CrispyQ]

1. Read this as:

Instead the agency PASSED THE BUCK to a trucking logistics firm, Landstar Express America, which in turn PASSED THE BUCK to a limousine company, which in turn PASSED THE BUCK to a travel management company.


snip...

Though it was well-known that New Orleans, much of it below sea level, would flood in a major hurricane, Landstar, the Jacksonville company that held a federal contract that at the time was worth up to $100 million annually for disaster transportation, did not ask its subcontractor, Carey Limousine, to order buses until the early hours of Aug. 30, roughly 18 hours after the storm hit, according to Sally Snead, a Carey senior vice president who headed the bus roundup.

(emphasis mine)

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Holy shit! None of us would be able to keep our jobs or stay in business if we performed so incompetently!

[SharonAnn]

2. This way they could spread the FEMA $ to as many Republicans as

possible. never mind that there was nothing left to actualy perform the evacuation.

After every company took their "cut" for "administration" of their ortion, there was little money left to actually pay drivers and fuel buses.