Why couldn't the Navy be used to mass evacuate before a cat 5 storm?

[Carni]

I mean in an area where there are bases under the threat of a hugely powerful storm like Katrina?

I am no mastermind about evacuation procedures and natural disastors and I am grossly uninformed about what the military legally can/should and can't/shouldn't do...but I thought that when these huge storms threaten an area that Naval ships and aircraft are moved to other locations anyways?

The gulf is full of naval bases isn't it? Couldn't they have directed people without a way to leave to bases so they could leave on these military ships and crafts that had to be moved anyway?

Seems it would have been a better solution than cramming people into what sounds like a cesspool (The Superdome)

Maybe this is a naive and stupid suggestion on my part
(and after all we still have the whole *terra* thing going on supposedly)

Just seems ridiculous to think of huge naval ships and aircraft being moved with nothing in them (esp now in the aftermath people are drowning and clinging to the tops of their homes) :(

[bryant69]

1. Well I guess it would depnd on the time frame and how fast those

boats can move. If they could get people on them in a timely fashion and they could out run the storm, well it might be safer - but, at least in my mind, those are two pretty big ifs.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[GOPisEvil]

2. When Ingleside closes in Texas, the Navy will have no Gulf port.

Most of the Naval bases along the Gulf are Naval Air Stations. Aside from Ingleside in Texas, the closest large Naval facility is probably Jacksonville, FL.

[Carni]

9. I didn't know that --I thought there was a base in Biloxi

Like I said I am not very informed about what bases are where.

I guess I shouldn't quit my day job and go into emergency management.

[GOPisEvil]

11. There's a small base in Pascagoula. Search feature link inside.

http://dbease.mconetwork.com/dbEase/cgi-bin/search.pl?tableName=Bases_navy

I'm guessing they had to evacuate Pascagoula though.

[speedoo]

3. That's completely unrealistic.

The Navy ships could not have gotten to the Gulf Coast because Katrina was churning up the Gulf for days before Monday.

The only way to evacuate was over land or via airlift.

[AnnInLa]

8. thank you

Do most of you realize that N.O. is not actually on the coast? It is upriver. How would you evacuate the thousands of people who actually live in hundreds of small towns SOUTH of New Orleans? These towns are in the swamps and marsh. It is really nice to think that it can be done, but it is completely impossible.

[Carni]

13. I meant BEFORE the storm

I was under the incorrect impression that there was a base in the area.

I was thinking along the terms of getting the people to a base before a storm of this magnitude and then allowing them to evacuate that way if they so choose.

It might work in an area on the East Coast like Virginia Beach but apparently not in the Gulf.

[Xenotime]

4. They can out run a storm...really easy

They could have brought in ships from the east coast or west coast and gotten people out. They could be sendign ships now and yet this administration is doing nothing. Lousey

[ArkDem]

12. Yes, they knew on 8/25 that Katrina was Cat 5. They didn't know

where it was going for sure but they had 4 days to blanket the gulf coast with warships from the east coast. VERY POOR PLANNING!

[ArkDem]

5. You are right. A Nimitz class carrier should be stationed on

Canal Street, RIGHT NOW!!!

[geomon666]

6. Nazy?

I'm sure that was just a freudian slip. :)

[Carni]

10. The bush reign has made me dyslexic (or something maybe just insane)

I changed it (pretty dumb typo on my part)

[faithfulcitizen]

7. was thinking same thing...btw, you spelled "Nazy" :) nt

[patcox2]

14. Hmm, let me count the reasons

1. You couldn't fit a million people in all the navy ships put together.
2. The hurricane could sink the navy ships.
3. Getting the ships to the evacuation site, then getting the people to some port-boarding area where they could board the ships, would take about 20 times longer than simply transporting people out of the area.
4. Its impossible.