Posted on 09/06/2005 10:27:35 AM PDT by 2nd amendment mama
Kristi Richie
Press-Herald Staff
The nine school buses Webster Parish sent to New Orleans Friday to assist with evacuation efforts returned only with their drivers.
The buses stopped at a checkpoint in LaPlace and sat for several hours.
“Somebody came and told them they didn’t have a mission for them, so we loaded up and came home,” Webster Parish Schools Superintendent Butch Williams said.
Webster wasn’t the only group of buses turned away, though. Several hundred school buses, which were sent by order of Gov. Kathleen Blanco, were also turned away with no evacuees — possibly because the buses are not air conditioned and have no bathrooms, and officials did not know how far the buses would have to travel with evacuees.
“We have no idea what happened or went on. It wasn’t the evacuees that didn’t want to get on — I don’t really know what it was,” Williams said. “We’re pretty upset. It took a long time to get down there, and they had to sit there so long.”
The order from the governor was handed down Thursday night, stating all school superintendents are to provide an inventory of all buses and drivers and they are to be made available “to be used as necessary for the mass evacuation of Hurricane Katrina evacuees...”
First Baptist Church also took two buses to South Louisiana and were turned away.
Drivers Bob Chandler and Tommy Davis were to take the two air conditioned buses to just outside the French Quarter and evacuate 70 residents and 10 staff members of Maison Hospital.
However, the buses made it only as far as Baton Rouge before being turned around.
The Webster Parish Sheriff’s Office did utilize two parish school buses to transport prisoners to high ground.
Ten deputies were sent to assist and arrived just after daylight Thursday morning. One bus took prisoners to Monroe, and the second load was taken to Union Parish.
It just keeps piling up.
Obviously Bush himself stopped those buses and made them leave empty.
do i have to say /sarcasm?
The night before Katrina hit - I sat and watched the Mayor of New Orleans being interviewed by the local news. He was sitting at the news desk and asked the weatherman, "what can we expect if the levees break"?
I swear to you - that's what he actaully asked the guy !!!
The man was completely clueless.
No one forget - it was President Bush who ordered the mayor to evacuate the city.
The media is so racially terrified - they can't see the truth
The night before Katrina hit - I sat and watched the Mayor of New Orleans being interviewed by the local news. He was sitting at the news desk and asked the weatherman, "what can we expect if the levees break"?
I swear to you - that's what he actaully asked the guy !!!
The man was completely clueless.
No one forget - it was President Bush who ordered the mayor to evacuate the city.
The media is so racially terrified - they can't see the truth
Bush did it.
Webster wasn’t the only group of buses turned away, though. Several hundred school buses, which were sent by order of Gov. Kathleen Blanco, were also turned away with no evacuees — possibly because the buses are not air conditioned and have no bathrooms, and officials did not know how far the buses would have to travel with evacuees.NOW she send busses?
When were they turned away? Yesterday? or LAst Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday? There are lots of buses being turned away now - 10 from DC get a thumbs down from eveyone. They are coming home empty.
Staggeringly bad reporting. I think the little reporterette just forget to ask that question.
"...possibly because the buses are not air conditioned and have no bathrooms..."
Well, if it's not first class, we don't want it... I think I'd have taken a ride on one of those anyway if I needed to get out of a toxic pool of water.
Words fail me. Because the buses didn't have air conditioning and bathrooms, they weren't used to get people out of buildings with no air conditioning and bathrooms.
Does anyone here know why they waited to so long to change the south bound lanes to north bound only, so that more people could get out? I think it was I-10, but I could be wrong. I just remember watching the traffic jam and the south bound lanes had not been changed. Then, a few hours later, they told people who hadn't left that they were going to have to stay in N.O.
DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A little late to be sending buses.
SAVE THE BUSES, NOT THE PEOPLE
The decision by NOLA local government (Mayor Nagin) to save the buses instead of deploying them to evacuate the "poor", the infirm, those needing help, etc. with a category 5 hurricane approaching, has been a a major factor contributing to the chaos and has lead to many unnecessary deaths. The photos of the undeployed buses sitting in 4 feet of water close to the Superdome tells a terrible story. Why do we not see these photos on the mainstream media and why are reporters not questioning this? Someone obviously made a decision that keeping the buses safe by not deploying BEFORE the hurricane would not risk damaging them so they could be used AFTER the storm hit, to evacuate those who weren't dead (as well as keeping the tourist cash flow, if the hurricane misses.). New Orleans has NEVER deployed their buses to evacuate the "poor" and helpless before any hurricane. They gamble to save their precious buses, and now, lose lives because of it. Criminal. And everyone is blaming Bush.
LOL!! That's Outstanding!
Friday was a week late. Hundreds of buses should have been evacuating tens of thousands of people a week ago Friday.
I guess it is too much to hope that a goverment bean counter that gets paid a six figure salary would figure out that buses could stop for a bathroom break. Better people die than have to hold it for 15 minutes between gas stations.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.