Nagin's Failure

This AP photo shows scores of New Orleans school buses sitting in flood waters after Hurricane Katrina - sitting where they sat instead of being used to evacuate thousands of poor people before Katrina hit.

Why are scores of school buses sitting in the flood waters of New Orleans today? Blame New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who is one reason things have gotten worse, not better, in his stricken city since it was hit by Hurricane Katrina. His laissez faire approach to looting allowed the looters to become increasingly armed and violent, interrupting rescue and recovery operations.

But even before Katrina hit, he failed his poorest citizens horribly. He told them to evacuate the city - and then gave his city's poorest residence no way to do so.

Nagin lashed out at federal officials yesterday for the government's relief efforts, pleading for the government to round up "500 buses" to send to New Orleans to evacuate survivors.

But Nagin, who ordered a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans before Katrina hit, ought to be made to answer this question: Where are the buses of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority? Under water? Destroyed? Why?

I read it and what's the problem?

The page details what to do.

Are you suggesting doing something more?

It costs a bunch of $$$ to take all the people out of the projects and bus them to high ground.

Additionally, you'd already have to have acommodations at the other end.

And nobody dreamed the levee would break.

I just think too much blame is being placed on this poor schm*ck.

Payoffs involved in S&WB (Sewerage and Water Board)process, feds say Executive accused of taking kickbacks, Sunday, May 15, 2005 By Gordon Russell Staff writer

A corporate partnership that considered bidding to manage New Orleans' water and sewer operations was secretly paying business executive Gilbert Jackson $1,500 a month because Jackson -- whose employer, the engineering firm Camp Dresser & McKee, was helping draw up the bid specifications -- told company representatives that doing so would help them win the contract, federal prosecutors contend.
The revelation, from filings in an unrelated case in Ohio, is the first assertion that payoffs figured in the city's long flirtation with privatizing parts of the Sewerage & Water Board, a five-year process that critics often complained was open to shenanigans.
[excerpt]

New Orleans Mayor Nagin gives up on water private partnering ...the saga ends., August 18, 2004

NEW ORLEANS -- Announcing the appointment of a new Sewerage and Water Board director, Mayor Ray Nagin said Wednesday that the city has scuttled all plans to privatize the system.
Marcia St. Martin, who has served as interim director of the board since 2003, was selected as part of a nationwide search. The announcement ends years of debate over which entity could best handle a crumbling infrastructure and federally mandated repairs. Three groups -- U.S. Filter, United Water and a group of Sewerage and Water Board managers -- were vying for the contract, which would have been worth $1 billion.
The water board is responsible for providing residents with clean drinking water, performing wastewater treatment and disposal and maintaining one of the most extensive and complex drainage systems in the country, Nagin's office said.

Aaaayyyyy! What's a little corruption here, a littl graft there. So what if we don't know what we're talking about. As long as the sound bites are good. We haven't had a major hurricane hit us in ages. So what if the city is surrounded by water and is below sea level. We can always order an evacuation and no one will get hurt. Ooooops!

If you can read, you can and should be able to get out of Dodge.

And even if you can't read...you can walk or chip-in for a taxi.

If bedridden people were left behind, it's still not Nagin's fault. It's whoever was supposed to care for the safety of the patients.

I hope words don't still fail you.

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