About the mayor of NO and the school buses.

[TNDemo]

There was criticism on Drudge about the mayor (who I love) not using the school buses for evacuation before the hurricane. Has he responded to that?

[DrDebug]

1. He responded in his interview

> What do you need right now to get control of this situation?

I need reinforcements. I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man and we are talking - one of the briefings we were talking about public school bus drivers and come down here and bus people.

I'm like you gotta be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggawn Greyhound busline in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans. That's them thinking small, man and this a major, major, MAJOR deal. And I can't emphasise it enough, man. This is crazy

I've got 15-20,000 people over there at the Convention Center. It is bursting at the seems. The poor people in Tammany(?) Parish. They are airevacing people over here in New Orleans. We don't have anything and we are sharing with our brothers in Tammany Parish. It is awful down here.

[RandiFan1290]

9. Remember the lines trying to get out of NO

Those busses would have sit in traffic all day. Then what? Drop the people in a field?

[RandiFan1290]

10. sorry dupe

[Roland99]

2. That Yahoo pic on Drudge's site, do we know for sure that was in Orleans?

I've been trying to find the address of the bus compound and think I found it but the size of the parking lot doesn't match the Yahoo photo.

See here for more info:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4601558

[NewHampshireDem]

3. School bus holds about 44 adults, without anything else

Adults and a bag and a child ... we'd be talking maybe 4 or 5 families, tops. I know that is better than nothing, but it is simply that the math does not work out very well. A coach (Greyhound-style) bus has room for more people, plus a toilet, plus room under the bus to store a lot of gear.

<on edit>

Just saw the pic myself ... looks like about 100 buses or so, maybe more. That could have made a good part of an evacuation plan. ... Certainly something worth looking into.

[babylonsister]

4. I saw the pictures of those buses surrounded by

flood waters. I can't understand why they weren't used to move the poorer people prior to Katrina hitting, and why they weren't moved away from the coast. From what I saw, I wonder if any of them will ever be serviceable again. And there were dozens of them.
I'm not blaming the mayor, but someone should be responsible for not having an inkling of a plan.

[scarletwoman]

5. Frankly, I think it's a somewhat valid criticism.

How could the mayor not have known that there were thousands of residents in his city that had no cars, that had no way to accomodate his mandatory evacuation order? Why was there no provision made for evacuating those unable to hop into cars and leave?

Telling people to go to the Superdome or the Convention Center is not a plan, not when there were no supplies on hand.

I fault the Federal government above all, but I don't see why the local authorities should escape all criticism. Yes, the situation detoriated quickly and quickly went beyond the scope of local resources; but with no apparent local resources brought to bear in the first place -- beyond orders to "get out of town" -- I think it is correct and appropriate to question the judgement of the city administration itself.

For example, where were the plans to evacuate hospitals? Or barring evacuation, where were the plans to provide emergency food, water and fuel for generators?

The situation in NO is a failure on the part of MANY layers of government. I don't see why the actions or inactions of the mayor should be beyond scrutiny.

sw

[Spazito]

6. I agree, everything must be under scrutiny about this including

the coordinated plan that was in place in which all levels of government were part of. Who did their part and who failed because, in a coordinated plan, if even one 'spoke' doesn't come through with their part, it falls apart.

[Boredtodeath]

8. Valid, but.......

Put them on buses and take them WHERE?

There were no large scale shelters set up anywhere but at the dome.

So, yes, he could have put them on school buses - to where?

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Anywhere inland

Each bus goes to a school far enough inland, and the people bed down in the assembly hall. This is an emergency - people in other towns will do something to help.

[Boredtodeath]

17. Perhaps you've missed the info from Houston?

Even the Houston Astrodome can't accept all the people from New Orleans.

I ask again, put them on buses and take them WHERE?

[buddysmellgood]

18. Anywhere but NO. It's not rocket science.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. There are other places in the south of the USA

There's nothing that says people all have to be evacuated to one place. As I said, you send them to any town big enough to have a school, and that has electricity and running water.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. And what about trains?

From what I understand, there was about 24 hours between the decision to evacuate NO and when the winds would have made it dangerous to move transport around. That should be enough to get a few trains into the city and taking people out.

I wasn't in touch with news reports when the 'evacuation' happened, but when I heard it had been ordered, I automatically assumed that it meant buses and trains would have been commandeered to take people out - and that you'd pull in resources from quite far away (at least the whole state). 200 buses sitting in a depot (even if that's not in NO itself) is a criminal waste of resources.

[justabob]

11. I wondered about trains as well

I also wonder why trains aren't being used more now.... I realize people would have to be transported out and to a train station or depot, but it seems that would be much faster and more efficient than buses having to go all the way to Houston, Dallas, San Antonio etc.

[buddysmellgood]

19. Isn't there a big river near NO? I understand all kinds of things move

up and down the river. One would think people could also be loaded on a vessel and moved to saftey. Let's see, boats, trains, planes, buses, cars...I think it might have been possible to get a few people out of the city.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Could be feasible

but I don't know how far inland they'd want to move them, and if boats could do that fast enough.

[buddysmellgood]

20. Isn't there a big river near NO? I understand all kinds of things move

up and down the river. One would think people could also be loaded on a vessel and moved to saftey. Let's see, boats, trains, planes, buses, cars...I think it might have been possible to get a few people out of the city.

[SofaKingLiberal]

12. I wonder how the mayor is

expected to have evacuated the entire city 1 one day when the Federal Government couldn't evacuate the Superdome in 6 days?

[Wcross]

13. Are the buses tanks full?

Unless they are fueled then they wouldn't do much good.

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. Buses should have been used, but it's not the mayor's fault

This was a National Emergency and the Dept of Homeland Security was in charge from the start.

It was up to Homeland Security to coordinate the evacuation and they didn't.

They mayor was begging for help from the beginning, then someone would tell him help was coming, then a couple of hours later he be yelling for help again because no one had come through. They tied his hands and now they are trying to blame him for the mess.

Drudge needs to go shove his crap up his lily white ass.

[maine_raptor]

15. This REALLY pisses me off

First the busses:

The prior poster was correct, there were NO, NONE, NADA, ZIP shelters setup prior to the storm to handle ANY folks no matter how they go there. And besides busses need couple of things, like gas and drivers. I remember news reports that gas stations all over the area were running out of gas and there was not anyway to get more because BOTH sides of the interstate were being used outbound. As for drivers, they were told to leave and I bet most did with their families.

Second Trains:

Show me one, just one single mayor of ANY major urban center that can commender Amtrak trains and I'll agree that that was an option.

Third Airplanes:

The airline stopped sending planes into NO on Sunday and the folks that own those big green C-130 and C-5A transports live in DC and Crawford, not NO and LA.

Let's keep an eye on the ball here folks.....this was a very predictable disaster and because of the neglect and incompetence, the dead toll lies at the feet of the Feds, NOT THE LOCALS.

[moondust]

21. The Fed has more than school buses.

Where were they?

[Sewsojm]

24. I think too,

that the mayor knew he had a big problem with his own state workers getting the hell out of dodge, maybe he could have gotten the people left behind to drive themselves out, but wouldn't that have also opened himself and the city up to lawsuits. I saw a greyhound or some kind of bus overturned yesterday which killed one person last I heard. I think the mayor was left in an impossible situation and now they want to place all the blame with him.....that's Disgusting!!