Posted on 09/03/2005 12:14:14 PM PDT by joinedafterattack
By Friday late afternoon hotels in Shreveport were being booked solid. By Saturday morning, a mandatory evac would have meant people who could walk or ride a bike or taken some of those NO horse drawn buggies could have gotten to Baton Rouge. Of course, if you were waiting for somebody to take care of you (not just say those in nursing homes) then those school buses, etc., were your only ticket out.
Remember, the mayor told them to get out of town any way they could... and that it would be better to be stuck in your car than in NO. Which is why I want to know what happened to those folks in the traffic jams... especially on the Ponchratrain Bridge. Hope this is documented in those hurricane threads.
He was prostituted.
Oh, wait, uhhhhhh, *nevermind*
Behold:
source: http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26
"City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan" annex I: Hurricanes
III. EVACUATION ORDER[emphasis added to illustrate who is a lying incompetent scumbag]A. Authority
As established by the City of New Orleans Charter, the government has jurisdiction and responsibility in disaster response. City government shall coordinate its efforts through the Office of Emergency Preparedness
The authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane is conferred to the Governor by Louisiana Statute. The Governor is granted the power to direct and compel the evacuation of all or part of the population from a stricken or threatened area within the State, if he deems this action necessary for the preservation of life or other disaster mitigation, response or recovery. The same power to order an evacuation conferred upon the Governor is also delegated to each political subdivision of the State by Executive Order. This authority empowers the chief elected official of New Orleans, the Mayor of New Orleans, to order the evacuation of the parish residents threatened by an approaching hurricane.
B. Issuance of Evacuation Orders
The person responsible for recognition of hurricane related preparation needs and for the issuance of an evacuation order is the Mayor of the City of New Orleans. Concerning preparation needs and the issuance of an evacuation order, The Office of Emergency Preparedness should keep the Mayor advised.
[snip]
V. TASKS
A. Mayor
* Initiate the evacuation.
* Retain overall control of all evacuation procedures via EOC operations.
* Authorize return to evacuated areas.
B. Office of Emergency Preparedness
* Activate EOC and notify all support agencies to this plan.
* Coordinate with State OEP on elements of evacuation.
* Assist in directing the transportation of evacuees to staging areas.
* Assist ESF-8, Health and Medical, in the evacuation of persons with special needs, nursing home, and hospital patients in accordance with established procedures.
* Coordinate the release of all public information through ESF-14, Public Information.
* Use EAS, television, cable and other public broadcast means as needed and in accordance with established procedure.
* Request additional law enforcement/traffic control (State Police, La. National Guard) from State OEP.
This is from the NOLA website! This has been the city plan for hurricane evacuations for who knows how long! And he CLAIMS he had to consult with the city attorney Saturday night to find out if he had authority to order an evacuation?
Can you say: "BUSTED"?
If you could average 45 persons on each of those buses, that'd be roughly 20,000 persons moved per round trip.
BS Deo. My daugher started driving Saturday morning when the gas lines started to form in the city. It was more than 24 hours later that the city was told of a mandatory evacuation.
the dems can load buses full of otherwise non-voters and get them to the polls, but can't evacuate them out of town ... sheesh!
bump
*ouch* That's gonna leave a scar!
Sorry, he's black...all he gets is a tongue bath.
No, Nagin will not be bashed. The MSM has their sights set on BUSH being the bad guy all the way on this. Pathetic, truly pathetic. BUT the TRUTH will come out!
Nobody was stuck in their car in NO. As for lack of evac centers, so what? Just go, and try to get yourself before a camera, and say you need someplace to stay in BR, or Alexandria or whatever. At least you will live. What would I have done on Sat without an auto? I would have taken my bike and peddled to the airport. Even if dirt poor, have a bike. A motorcycle is better, but a bike is better than nothing. Granted if you have young children, then you are just screwed. You are left with the tender mercies of the dome, and hope that it ain't a Cat 5, or strong 4.
The ones I used: HURRICANEKATRINA; KATRINA;
Get this to Drudge, stat!!!!
I'm sure before it's all said he will state:
"I was for getting the people out, before I was against it"
and will testify before the Grand Jury under oath:
"I did NOT have second thoughts about evacuation with that hurricane Ms. Katrina".
KATRINA TAKES AIM
Sunday, August 28, 2005
(excerpt)
Tracking westward Saturday after crossing south Florida on Thursday, the storm began a turn toward the north and intensified, fed by the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The storm seemed to pose the most serious threat of a direct hit to the area since 1998, when Hurricane Georges barreled toward metropolitan New Orleans before veering at the last moment to Ocean Springs, Miss., with winds of 105 mph.
Walter Maestri, Jefferson Parish's emergency management director, gauged the threat in terms that chilled New Orleanians old enough to remember the summers of 1965 and 1969: Katrina was following Hurricane Betsy's track, he said, with the strength of Hurricane Camille.
A computer model run by the LSU Hurricane Center late Saturday confirmed that. It indicated the metropolitan area was poised to see a repeat of Betsy's flooding, or worse, with storm surge of as much as 16 feet moving up the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet and topping levees in Chalmette and eastern New Orleans, and pushing water into the 9th Ward and parts of Mid-City. High water flowing from Lake Pontchartrain through St. Charles Parish also would flood over levees into Kenner, according to the model.
Also flooded would be much of the north shore below Interstate 12, including Slidell, Madisonville, Mandeville and Lacombe, according to the model.
And the model doesn't take into account the 5- to 10-foot waves that would be on top of the surge, which could top levees all along the south shore of the lake.
On Saturday at 7 p.m., the Hurricane Center placed the storm 360 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, with winds of 115 mph. The forecast projected the storm sweeping directly over the city.
The Hurricane Center posted a hurricane warning from Morgan City to the Alabmama-Florida line.
President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, authorizing federal emergency management officials to release federal aid and coordinate disaster relief efforts.
By mid-afternoon, officials in Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, Lafourche, Terrebonne and Jefferson parishes had called for voluntary or mandatory evacuations.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin followed at 5 p.m., issuing a voluntary evacuation.
Nagin said late Saturday that he's having his legal staff look into whether he can order a mandatory evacuation of the city, a step he's been hesitant to do because of potential liability on the part of the city for closing hotels and other businesses.
"Come the first break of light in the morning, you may have the first mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," Nagin told WWL-TV.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1125213007249320.xml
My point was simply that an offficial hurricane WARNING was first issued by the Nation Weather Service at 10 PM Saturday evening.
There were hurricane WATCHES issued earlier than that, of course.
I don't know when it became apparent that the hurricane would be Category 4 or 5.
The earlier watches specified Category 2 or 3.
And the Mayor should have ordered an evacuation long before Sunday morning.
I'm not trying to defend the mayor's actions.
Or the governor's.
They were extremely negligent, in my opinion.
"I'm starting to think that he [Mayor Nagin] might ought to be charged with negligent homicide."
I'm afraid Nagin is going to have to answer to a criminal court for his neglect on two fronts: 1) why he didn't ENFORCE the mandatory evacuation order; and 2) why he didn't marshal the school buses to get those out of there who didn't have the means to evacuate.
As far as I can tell, Bush made one and only one mistake in this debacle - he trusted the Governor and the Mayor to do their jobs.
I can see how this ambiguous statement could be misconstrued and misunderstood. /sarc
If not, I expect it is only a matter of time. They're obviously champing at the bit to lay this tragedy at Bush's doorstep.
If they do demand an investigation, I'm sure Bush will be all too happy to let them have their stupid investigation, because in the end, it will prove what we all know -- the mayor and governor "fiddled while NO flooded".
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