Posted on 09/05/2005 2:32:49 AM PDT by guitarnick40
Did they fail miserable or do you give them a pass because they have an R after their names?
and TEXAS, we sent the buses to the Superdome.
"and TEXAS, we sent the buses to the Superdome."
Excellent point, Rosie! Texans saw a problem and took steps to try to mitigate it.
But it has also left me questioning the progress and actions of NO and LA officials and the role of the Fed. Gov. I have tried to keep up but so many post have gone into the 1000's containing good and bad information. Some of the following comments are interesting and some contradict each other. What is the TRUTH!!! With most of MSN bashing President Bush my natural reflex is to bash them! Anyway -- if someone can help put the picture together----
Post #16: The State and Local governments organized the largest evacuation in the History of the United States.
1.25 million people over two roads in less than 48 hours.
How would Your Local Government have done?
Post #29:It sure would have been good if that could have occurred before Katrina hit. Hindsight is 20/20, I know. But had the plans NO had actually been followed, more people would have been evacuated and more would have survived.
Post #39: How would Your Local Government have done? Probably not any better is the short answer.
However, there are some differences, albeit easier to see in hindsight. As everyone now knows, New Orleans lies below sea level. I've know for years that NOLA was subject to complete flooding, though I thought the Mississippi changing course at Long-named-river would be the cause. But surely a category 5 storm approaching should have invoked the worst case scenario plans to evacuate the city, and "Orders" were giving and, as you point out, over a million people responded to the "word to the wise". But the mayor and other local officials, who are closest to their own (poor) residents, should have had a better plan. The worst case plans should
Post #40:It is a pity they had to throw this tired crap into the article :
But fears that the refugees will become an uncivil mob at the Astrodome are overblown. The concerns were, inevitably, tinged with race and class perceptions. The pictures we see from the Superdome are of people who are mostly poor and black.
After the MSM has spent so much time focusing on looting, violence, rape, and shooting, carefully constructing an image of all the people there in NOLA as criminals, is it any wonder folks would be concerned? Sheesh!
Until people stop, take a deep breeath, and realize that the majority of crime is perpetrated by a minority of the people, (and the MSM ditch the race/class crap), there will be a reaction ranging from an undercurrent of suspicion to complete antipathy toward these people.
The MSM continues to do a disservice to the people of New Orleans.
Post #43: "The pictures we see from the Superdome are of people who are mostly poor and black.
After the MSM has spent so much time focusing on looting, violence, rape, and shooting, carefully constructing an image of all the people there in NOLA as criminals, is it any wonder folks would be concerned? Sheesh!"
I saw an interview with one of the doctors that was in the Superdome from the first night. He said he saw NO violence in the dome. If their were rapes and fights he would have been treating the injuries. He said he was never worried for his safety or afraid of the people in the dome. He said he lost weight and was hungry, but he got 2 MRE's and 2 bottles of water a day.
Sounds like a completely different story than the rumors the MSM has been spreading, doesn't it?
Post #45:The State and Local governments organized the largest evacuation in the History of the United States. From what I saw, state and local ran around in circles wringing their hands. The feds organized the largest evacuation in the history of the United States.
Post #47: Okay, now I think I get you. You're talking about the evacutation before the hurricane, right? I don't think waiting until the last minute to throw their hands up and scream "Run!" was very organizational. Where were the busses? They should know their own people well enough to know that too many couldn't run.
Post #49: Yes, it does, and it is about what I would expect from reality. I have known a lot of poor people who will get by in a pinch--by pooling their resources, no matter how meager and working together to accomplish what they must. The MSM is having a Bush bash, anti-republican, racist anti-white, "have" vs "have-not" hissy-fit in an attempt to keep the poor in general and especially poor Blacks in thrall to the Democratic Party.
The worse they can paint the picture, the more they can blame on Bush.
Oddly, though, that portrayal may have unintended consequences, as few people are inclined to be generous when the victims are portrayed as welfare leeches, criminals, or worse. No one wants to subsidize low-life (as opposed to decent folks), regardless of color or economic standing.
Ironically, had the Democrat politicos-from the Clinton levee budget cuts through the incompetence of the Mayor and Governor--done their jobs right, much of this could have been mitigated, if not avoided.
It was a crime to leave those busses parked, and not even get the vehicles to higher ground. That was a colossal waste. It was more of a crime to not have driven them out of there with a load of poor people on each one.
Everyone reacts differently, but most victims of disaster tend to be quiet, subdued, in shock, even. The perpetrators of disaster (criminals, those who stayed to loot, etc.), are the problem types. I even wonder if some of that was staged...
But by playing tawdry political games with a disaster of Biblical proportions, the MSM soil their profession. That stain will take a long time to wear off.
Post #50: do not imagine you contend with many hurricane evacuations in Seattle but you have not remember that New Orleans did not have a week's warning of the storm. However, my being in New Olreans prior to this storm I can know the time line. On Friday afternoon the NWS's Storm Tracking Cone showed landfall anywhere from east of Panama City to the Texas Border. Furthermore, winds were at 110 MPH at noon on Friday. That was not a threat.
On Friday evening the mayor was on TV saying "Everyone needs to make a plan to get out of the city in case the storm heads to New Orleans. By Saturday morning the storm had intensified QUICKER THAN ANY STORM THAT HAD EVER BEEN IN THE GULF.
The Mayor held a press conference and said "This is the storm we have feared all of our lives. This is Not a Drill, Everyone needs to evacuate the city. Between Saturday morning and Sunday evening 1.25 million people evacuated the city. An evacuation on that scale had never been done in American History.
Post #51: The feds organized the largest evacuation in the history of the United States.
Now it is Clear that you do not know what you are talking about. Having been in the City during the evacuation it the State, Parish and City that Coordinated the Evacuation.
Next.
Post #52: Short of going to everyone's house with a gun and forcing them out there was not other way to get most of these people to leave.
post #53: You're talking about the evacutation {sic} before the hurricane, right?
When you live on the Gulf Coast you learn that it is best to evacuate BEFORE THE HURRICANE and interestingly 1.25 million people were able to do all without any help from the Fed.
post #54: Yes, 1.25 million people were evaucated before the hurricane hit. All of this was coordianted by the State, Parish and City Governemtns.
The Feds were not there on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
Post #56: Okay, calm yourself. I misread your post and corrected myself, as you can see.
Yes, 1.25 million got out. But too many couldn't, and that was a local failure. The locals knew their people had no means to evacuate.
I have not spent my entire life in Seattle. I lived in New Orleans for two years, and the southeast itself for another four. I've been through hurricanes in New Orleans.
Post #57 The Feds were not there on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
There was no reason for them to be there. There wasn't a federal level disaster until the levee broke, after the storm had passed.
Post #58 How would Your Local Government have done?"
The people who evacuated did so mostly on their own, in their own transportation. State police obviously helped direct the smooth flow of traffic, and in some cases all four lanes of Interstates were used to carry traffic in one direction away from the storm impact areas. The catasterphy in New Orleans resulted from no coordinated effort to get the people without transportation out. The NO Mayor and the LA Governor failed miserably in this. No one else had the responsibility. They had it and failed. Hundreds of school buses and other buses were not used and still sit, flooded where they were parked. If you run out of buses, put people in trucks to get them out. But get them out. No, the @$$hole mayor said the buses had to be 'Greyhound' 'cause they had toilets. What an ignorant piece of feces!
Post #60: Now let's see:
In Post 45 you wrote:
The feds organized the largest evacuation in the history of the United States.
In Post 54 you wrote:
There was no reason for them to be there. There wasn't a federal level disaster until the levee broke, after the storm had passed.
Now which is it? Did the Fed organize the largest evacuation as you stated in 45 or was "there no reason for them to be there as stated in 54?
Post #61 What about the Governor of Mississippi and the mayor of Biloxi?
Did they fail miserable or do you give them a pass because they have an R after their names?
What are you talking about, the people got in their cars and left. The only thing the locals did is make I-10 westbound in both directions. They didn't do anything to evacuate the poor, the carless and the infirmed-- their base. The flooded out buses speak for themselves.
It is not my inclination to point this out at this time, but the Left unfairly jumped on Bush's throat, so I felt obliged to point out the local failures.
In the end the vast majority of the people got out before the storm arrived and the Greater New Orleans death toll will be as a percentage of population smaller than that of coastal Mississippi.
Why weren't the buses sent out to the projects and nursing homes. Why weren't the prisoners-- who couldn't refuse to evacuate-- evacuated?
It is ridiculous that these women abandoned their kids like that. Clearly, one adult should have gone with the kids. Not a lot of critical thinking going on....
On their own. It was Bush that told the state to oder a mandatory evac. Left to their own devices, they wouldn't have done it. It was the American people, the ones in charge of their own lives, who jumped in their cars and got out. All the state did was make sure both East and West I-1O were both running westbound. The people he had to evac-- folks in nursing homes, jails and the carless in projects-- that he forgot about. He and Blanco blew it.
Hello??? New Orleans is below Sea Level???? New Orleans is a different case. No place in the Country is as vulnerable to a hurricane as New Orleans.
I was in New Orleans as the storm approached and did not need the mayor or anyone to tell me to leave or provide me with transportation.
But if you blame the mayor of New Orleans and Governor of Louisiana for the deaths, why not assign blame to the Governor of Mississippi?
As for New Orleans please cite me an example of a more successful evacuation in US History. 1.25 Million People over two roads in less than 48 hours.
I'm not going to argue with you because that is all you evidently want to do.
This thread started out to be a sweet story about a brave and smart little boy. Can't you just leave it alone?
Secondly, I find it interesting that people are all so willing to condemn local officials in Louisiana but not willing do so for the officials in Mississippi.
The Difference between the two sets of officials are their party. The similarities between the two states are that too many people died in both.
Apples and oranges.
May I have a B?
I'm guessing that somewhere there is a deceased grandmother who was watching all these children for their useless parents.
They just mentioned this story on NBC and showed the kids being reunited with their moms. No background though. Interestingly enough, Deamonte's mom's name is Katrina!
You're missing the point. Maybe you just want to be be argumentative.
New Orleans had an evacuation plan as early as 2000. It included using public transportation for the people without cars.
They failed to follow their own plan.
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