That's actually quite an understatement. By my count, there are around 200 buses in the AP picture. (It's also obvious that there are some unknown number beyond those shown, outside of the framing of the photo.)
Forget this knobs' failure as a Mayor. He is a miserable failure as a human being.
I've stepped in stuff better than him in a pasture.
I blame Blanco more than Nagin, Nagin met with Bush today and praised him, Nagin might be a boob but he seems to at least care and be involved to some degree. Blanco on the other hand is in hiding and hasn't made a public statement in days.
The local news just showed him bashing Bush and never mentioned his failures.
I've seen estimates of some 80% of the city's population having evacuated in order to escape the storm. The true number may be higher, may be lower, but I think we can all agree that figure is accurate for the most part.
Therefore, some 20% of 485,000 did not leave town. That's about 97,000.
Drilling down further, approximately a third of the city lives at or below poverty level; one can presume that a large chunk of these people do not drive cars, or at least do not drive cars fit to drive hundreds of miles out of harm's way.
I'll be conservative and say some 30,000 people were without means to drive or fly away from the city. We know that there are a heck of a lot more people than that who did say, so my figure is absurdly low, but I'll stick to it.
Now, could 30,000 people be driven away in the face of an approaching storm? That assumes, of course, that 100% of the people able to drive or fly away do so, which is never the case.
Anyway, 30K people have 72 hours to get out of town. Is there an event any of you can think of that called for the removal of 30,000 people from a major metropolitan city in 72 hours time?
The convoluted point I'm trying to make here is, what could Ray Nagin have done differently to stave off this disaster? Deputize a large portion of the population, arm them and have them forcibly go door to door, evicting people at every turn? The guy's primarily hired, as are most mayors, to fill potholes, attract business and such.
Talk about those city buses? Ferrying people to the Superdome, a facility designed to withstand 200 mph-plus winds, a seemingly sensible plan at the time and to all interested.
Common sense suggests that the city, inundated with water and therefore paralyzed, would need extensive assistance from state and federal resources. The order of magnitude of this disaster was that great, and those of you braying about "local control" and "solving one's own problems" have taken leave of your good senses in this instance.
Also, can anyone verify for me that Ray Nagin has "abandoned" New Orleans? Every resource I've checked, including locals who, you know, may know such things better than most of you sitting smugly a thousand miles away, swear Nagin has been in the city for most of the past week. One just told me he'd heard that Nagin, "is not leaving the city until the last person is pulled out."
Yeah, I'm angry. New Orleans is far from perfect, but this hyper-criticism of Ray Nagin is terribly misplaced. Direct it where it belongs, which in my opinion starts in the governor's mansion some 80 miles to the northwest of New Orleans.
By the way, when the President himself said he was disappointed with the relief response so far, do you really think he was referring to Ray Nagin not figuring out how to fire up some school buses in the hours preceding the storm?
Get a clue.
Nagin has shown, through all of this, just how incompetent he is. At a time when he could have stood up and been a strong figure, he has chosen to be a limp-wristed, ineffective looser.
Seems Nagin knew or was told that it would take a few days for federal supplies to get to NO. He warned folks to bring enough supplies to last several days. So not only did he cost the evacuation effort two days, he knew help wasn't coming right away.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/28/katrina.neworleans/index.html
Nagin said the city's shelters should be used as a last resort and said that people who use them should bring enough food, water and supplies to last for several days. He said that the Superdome, the city's main shelter, "is not going to be a very comfortable place at some point in time."
"The shelters will end up probably without electricity or with minimum electricity from generators in the end," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. "There may be intense flooding that will be not in our control which would be ultimately the most dangerous situation that many of our people could face."
bttt
Cops say Jeremy Nagin, 18, and a pal tried to make off with $800 in clothing and a $500 cell phone by using an altered credit card.
[snip] Authorities say Jeremy Nagin and Nantambu began their scam by stealing a credit card and using a decoding device to decipher its confidential data.
Then, they allegedly used a computer program to graft those numbers onto another credit card, which was used in the Bloomie's theft and in booking a room at the Courtyard by Marriott.
The two were charged with grand larceny, criminal impersonation, criminal possession of stolen property and forgery.
[snip]" The New Orleans mayor, who is married with three kids, was previously vice president and general manager of Cox Communications. He was responsible for Cox launching the first 24-hour television news service in the United States with CBS affiliate WWL, and is also a principal owner of the professional ice hockey franchise in New Orleans.
Yes, it would have been brilliant to have the school buses above sea level Sunday afternoon.
But, it wasn't stupidity not to.
Mayor "I am not a drug addict" Nagin.
Bump!
