Who's to Blame? Let's ask Mayor Nagin about this:

Yahoo ^ | 2 September 2005 | Self

[An.American.Expatriate]

Maybe Mayor Nagin would like to explain this picture before he and the rest of his democratic fellow travelers continue to blast the fed's.

An aerial view of flooded school buses in a lot, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005, in New Orleans, LA. The flood is a result of Hurricane Katrina that passed through the area last Monday.(AP Photo/Phil Coale)

[An.American.Expatriate]

If anyone has a way of getting this to someone who can get this published on the air or in print - please feel free to do so.....

[MarkeyD]

Send it to Drudge.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

"We need 500 buses"

[The Ox]

Where did this picture come from? Cane we have a direct link to ensure it is truely a recent pic of New Orleans? (Not doubting you, just making sure we have all bases covered)

[Frank_Discussion]

Did you see my response to you on the thread you originally posted this pic on? Great minds, et al.

[nikos1121]

Absolutely sickening. And he's blaming Bush and the Feds for what is happening.

[Puppage]

And, how do we know that this picture was taken in NO?

[frogjerk]

Those buses are used exclusively for busing on Election Day. They are off limits.

[killjoy]

What is your source for the photo?

[dirtboy]

If anyone has a way of getting this to someone who can get this published on the air or in print - please feel free to do so.....

IMO it actually would have been more effective to have a statewide plan to use buses from outside NOLA.

School bus drivers in NOLA would be more concerned about getting their families out than driving out others and them coming back to get their families. Unless, of course, you had a plan to train 2,000 guardsmen to get CDLs and drive the buses.

But if you used buses from outside the target area, the drivers would go to NOLA, pick up the passengers and drive them to the shelter areas - and then drive home and would be with their families outside the disaster area.

[hiredhand]

What are you trying to do here?! This is a CRISIS. You aren't SUPPOSED to show photos like these!

Now do a better job and show photos of the mayhem and mobs of angry people who are demanding what they are "owed" from the federal government!

< wink...wink... :-) >

[bahblahbah]

Where'd the picture come from?

[Constitution Day]

BTTT

[pepsionice]

My guess is that there are no drivers for these buses...and if there were...then they'd have to be union guys...and they'd demand overtime pay.

[silverleaf]

ROFL!!!

[LA Woman3]

They are amphibious buses.....

[apackof2]

Keep bumping this until this picture makes it to media, e-mail it to FOX, Hannity, Rush, CNN, 700 Club & for good measure post it on DU site

[Hermann the Cherusker]

You can see these buses on the satellite photo National Review has linked to on their site.

[MarkeyD]

Maybe that they are under water? Good place to start.

[mewzilla]

The buses and the cops cars that are under water. Sigh.

[Jeff Head]

As regards the Nat Guard troops and security, the Governor of the state of Louisiana always had the power to deploy the LA guard in the fashion that other state troops are being deployed today. It is her failure to do so that has prompted the President to get the help from other states.

As you point out, the Mayor of New Orleans, who ordered all those people into the superdome (and he only did that IMHO after he and the Governor were leaned on by the Bush administration) had the power to bus them out of the city at the same time. The City of New Orleans moves many more children each day on school buses than were in the dome. Those buses were available and slated to be used for school the next day. He could easily have evacuted those people...but did not.

When oredering a mandatory evacuation you use what resources you have to move the people...he did not. If it was important and dangerous enough to order all citizens to leave, it was dangerous enough to help those people to leave. Yet, they did not. After they failed to do so...the busses ended up under water and useless.

In the end, it was FEMA, after the local and state government's failure that had to get the job done...but now under much, much worse and dangerous circumstances.

No, it is not Bush's fault or the fed's fault. We must place blame squarely where it lies at the feet of the local and state executives who had neither the desire or the will to make those calls, irrespective of their political stripe.

[frogjerk]

These buses cannot be used because the are very uncomfortable and do not have the capacity to serve "hot" meals.

[TASMANIANRED]

Their evacuation plan was non existent.

Their evacuation plan was get out on your own.

They know where every school in the state is. Most of them have gyms.

They could have bussed out 100-200 people to each of those gyms 100 miles inland and left the city empty.

Mayor failed. Governor does not appear to have put the National Guard on alert prior to the storm.

Both of them sat on their butts and waited for the feds to do it all..

[Holicheese]

Probably the union would not negotiate with the city.

[MarkeyD]

It would have been hard getting them in considering all traffic, including south-bound lanes, were headed north.

[Archon of the East]

Saw same pict in Pgh Tribune Review on Wednesday in a collage of NO after Katrina.

[teenyelliott]

People are dying. Why isn't someone going in there with helicopters and AK-47's, and getting the babies out?

I don't give a damn about logistics, or feasibility. Someone in power needs to do something drastic NOW, before those babies die.

[mewzilla]

We must place blame squarely where it lies at the feet of the local and state executives who had neither the desire or the will to make those calls, irrespective of their political stripe.

And the voters who elected these idiots.

[Pukin Dog]

You gotta get that photo to Drudge.

[dfwgator]

At this time, I really hate to be pointing fingers, but the Rats started it, and their attacks cannot go without a response.

[shadeaud]

This picture was on one of the MSM's video. At first I thought it was of some other city( it couldn't be N.O.) The media didn't say word one about the submerged buses

[An.American.Expatriate]

I have taken the liberty to repost your pic in a few threads, and now one of it's own. Care to respond to some of these questions??

[Puppage]

Maybe that they are under water?

So, no other city has been under water before...ever?

[OXENinFLA]

An aerial view of flooded school buses in a lot, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005, in New Orleans, LA. The flood is a result of Hurricane Katrina that passed through the area last Monday.(AP Photo/Phil Coale)

[Gaffer]

And, there are no on-board showers and saunas....

[MarkeyD]

It's starting to happen en-masse today. Check the news.

[MamaB]

It is. I saw it on WWL the other day. Day before yesterday, I think. They are showing it on WWL, now.

[RGSpincich]

Mr. Mayor also fails to mention that he was supposed to order the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans a full 72 hrs. before the hurricane hit. NOT 24 hrs. He himself cost countless lives by adopting a wait and see attitude in the days before being hit.


http://www.weather.com/newscenter/specialreports/hurricanes/vulnerablecities/neworleans.html

Half of the 1 million people who live in the metro area evacuated as Georges drove toward the city, resulting in gridlock on the roads. Since Georges, city officials designed a plan that would provide a more orderly evacuation. It is to begin 72 hours before a storm hits, and end when the winds become too dangerous for motorists, according to Hijuelos.

The challenge will be convincing people to leave some three days before a hurricane makes landfall.

[Mamzelle]

But Bush didn't tell Nagin to use these buses to help evacuate!! How was Nagin supposed to know if Bush didn't tell him? It's still Bush's fault.

This is a great pic--pass it on.

[pettifogger]

Nagin was quoted in that local radio interview -- replayed on CNN and other networks -- that there had been a proposal to use school buses. "School buses!" he ranted with disdain, "School buses! Where are the Greyhounds? Why isn't every bus company coming here to rescue these people."

Are these people too good for school buses?

Is assistance only worthwhile if if comes from the private sector?

Or, is it that to try to use the school buses would expose the incompetence of local authorities to move these once perfectly serviceable vehicles to higher ground. Or, better yet, have used the school buses BEFORE the flooding to evacuate PEOPLE to higher ground.

[MamaB]

It was just on WWL. He said there were thousands of buses in the city under water.

[dawn53]

To evacuate the poor and infirmed before the hurricane you wouldn't have needed amphibious buses.

[TexasGreg]

PING

[The Ox]

Thanks, you're the best, fellow barn yard denzien!

[Brilliant]

It's hard to get help to people when the citizenry shoots at the rescuers.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Well, the congressional black causus in its public remarks just about blamed everything on GWB and "compassionate conservatives." This is a sad day when we are all to blame for a hurricane and the dems and libs come out in force to say this is all about black vs white.

[WideGlide]

School bus drivers in NOLA would be more concerned about getting their families out than driving out others...

From what I've seen of the cases in District Courts in the Big Easy any kid over 12 seems to be able to drive cars that don't belong to them. They should have just left the keys in them on Friday before the storm. That lot would be empty today.

[Wolfstar]

Re your #21, well said, Jeff.

[The G Man]

Here's the link:

An aerial view of flooded school buses in a lot, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005, in New Orleans, LA. The flood is a result of Hurricane Katrina that passed through the area last Monday.(AP Photo/Phil Coale)

[Callahan]

The local lib radio host kept blabbing about Bush "slashing" the levee project from $80 million to $40 million. Ok, but how was the $40 million that they did get spent? How much money was the bureaucracy sitting on already?