Roundup of buses for storm bungled (by Blanco)

The Times-Picayune ^ | 12/6/05 | Laura Maggi

[LdSentinal]

BATON ROUGE -- Two days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, thousands of people were trapped in the city without food, water and medical care and growing increasingly desperate for rescue. But a top aide to Gov. Kathleen Blanco sent out an e-mail informing his colleagues that his staff had stopped calling for the buses needed to evacuate people from the Superdome and other places of refuge.

"NO MORE CALLS FOR BUSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ty Bromell wrote Wednesday morning, Aug. 31. "My people are not calling for buses now."

Bromell, who heads Blanco's Office of Rural Development, said he had gotten word -- from Leonard Kleinpeter, a special assistant to the governor who was spearheading the effort to wrangle buses from school boards, churches and other groups -- that the vehicles were no longer needed.

[LA Woman3]

*ping*

[mtbopfuyn]

Blanco's staff credited her with a "visionary" response

Hallucinogenic visions?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

That's in their job description.

[Mr. Brightside]

The head of the bus drivers union was asked about the failure of busses to help evacuees.

He said, "There is nothing in our contract that requires our drivers to work during a hurricane."

[billhilly]

Good Morning, and thanks.

[Sacajaweau]

"Love thy neighbor" is not in their contract!! What a freakin' damn mentality these people have. This was their 9-11 and they didn't give a sh** about anyone.

LEADERSHIP!! Guliani!!

[girlangler]

There is probably some truth to this. Everything in Louisiana is controlled by unions.

[ken5050]

Seems to me that of late, all of a sudden, we are getting nthis deluge of anti-Blanco stories and leaks from inside ger admiistration. One might assume that there is soon goig to be a whole big s**t storm coming, and a lot of folks are tryig to get ahead of the squall line...One may also assume that Mary Landreau won't win her next race..

[billhilly]

Miss Piggy is probbly reading her anatomy books trying to figure the quickest and most painless way to...........?

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

"The governor turned to me and said, 'Where are the buses, where are the buses?' " Bromell recalled, saying Blanco told him to start getting buses again. At that point, the push became more aggressive, with Blanco later that evening issuing an executive order allowing the state to commandeer local government's school buses.

..where are the busses?..where are the busses?..at that point the push became more aggressive

[Mr. Brightside]

>>>>There is probably some truth to this.<<<<

"In an evacuation, buses would be dispatched along their regular routes throughout the city to pick up people and go to the Superdome, which would be used as a staging area. From there, people would be taken out of the city to shelters to the north.

Some experts familiar with the plans say they won’t work.

... It’s also unclear whether the city’s entire staff of bus drivers will remain. A union spokesman said that while drivers are aware of the plan, the union contract lacks a provision requiring them to stay."

http://www.nola.com/printer/printer.ssf?/washingaway/leftbehind_4.html

[girlangler]

Yep, that's how I remember Louisiana (used to live and work there).

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

I want to know what Blanco’s mental state was before and during the storm because she certainly wasn’t all there (putting it kindly).

[rightazrain]

All of this post-Katrina bus talk. What about the busses that were there BEFORE the storm and allowed to sit idle and flood?

I want to hear more about that!!

[Rocky]

And the finger-pointing continues...

[ExcursionGuy84]

...and keeps going and going...and going...and going...and going..and..

[LA Woman3]

All of this post-Katrina bus talk. What about the busses that were there BEFORE the storm and allowed to sit idle and flood?
I want to hear more about that!!

According to Mary Landrieu, they were underwater before the hurricane hit....

-snip-

WALLACE: But Senator, there were hundreds of buses sitting in that parking lot. Can I just ask the question?

LANDRIEU: You can, but let me finish, if I could, please.

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: Well, look in the picture here. There were hundreds of buses in parking lots. The city and the state.

LANDRIEU: That is underwater. Those...

WALLACE: It wasn't underwater before the...

LANDRIEU: Those buses were underwater. Those buses...

WALLACE: They weren't underwater on Saturday; they weren't underwater on Sunday.

LANDRIEU: We had two catastrophes. We had a hurricane and then we had a levee break. When the levee broke, not only did New Orleans go underwater, but St. Bernard when underwater and St. Tammany Parish went underwater.

WALLACE: But they weren't underwater on Sunday.

-snip-

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169075,00.html

[CajunConservative]

In my honest opinion she was in a state of shock and panic. Katrina went from a TS to Cat 5 in about 24 hours with landfall less than 72 hours away. She and Nagin were in OH Sh!t mode. The evacuation takes 72 hours. There's only 4 ways out, it was a weekend and them being dems they couldn't think on their feet.

[LA Woman3]

Seems to me that of late, all of a sudden, we are getting nthis deluge of anti-Blanco stories and leaks from inside ger admiistration. One might assume that there is soon goig to be a whole big s**t storm coming, and a lot of folks are tryig to get ahead of the squall line...One may also assume that Mary Landreau won't win her next race..

Hopefully you're right!

[CajunConservative]

*Louisiana Ping List

If you would like on or off the Louisiana Ping list please FReepmail me and your name will be added or taken off of the list.

[SMARTY]

"The understanding, Bromell said, was that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had enough buses on the way..."

How bonehead!!! Why not get those who wanted out - OUT and do it with the buses belonging to NOLA??? That way people could get out AND the buses could be salvaged. I am NOT a governor or a mayor and I can figure that one out!!!

[daybreakcoming]

But...but...but those buses were not air-conditioned nor did they have bathroom facilities. That was the reason belatedly given by LA offcial as the reason not to use them. They wanted tour buses.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Sorry for the late reply.

My family received an e-mail that Blanco hit the bottle when she was informed the hurricane was going their way. Her indulgence lasted for several days, hence her inability to act/respond.

[Muzzle_em]

"There's nothing in our contract that says we should give a damn about anyone but ourselves and helping out in an emergency, therefore, we won't."

[Muzzle_em]

It AMAZES me how Landrieu and Blanco did and still are denying what we could all see clearly. It is equivalent to them arguing to the DEATH that the sky is red yet we can clearly see that it is blue.

[Muzzle_em]

And they could have used the RADIO to issue a request for individuals with CDLs to drive the busses. Worse case scenario, individuals with clean driving records. I would have GLADLY driven a bus full of folks if that was my only way out of NO!

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Thank you for your reply.

What is your personal opinion, knowledge of my post #24? Have you heard anything concerning this?

Thank you.

[Bogey78O]

Uhhh someone ought to tell Landrieu there were no levee breaches in St. Tammany. The flooding was from the surge topping the levees.

[CajunConservative]

I don't know anything about that myself. I haven't heard anything about her drinking. They did make some jokes about "memaw's tranked" when she spoke at the hearings in DC though.

[LA Woman3]

Uhhh someone ought to tell Landrieu there were no levee breaches in St. Tammany. The flooding was from the surge topping the levees.

Are you surprised Katrina Mary doesn't know what she is talking about?? : )

[LA Woman3]

It AMAZES me how Landrieu and Blanco did and still are denying what we could all see clearly. It is equivalent to them arguing to the DEATH that the sky is red yet we can clearly see that it is blue.

Maddening , isn't it??

[Prost1]

"The head of the bus drivers union was asked about the failure of buses to help evacuees.

He said, "There is nothing in our contract that requires our drivers to work during a hurricane.""

And, without union drivers, no one else was permitted to drive the buses...truck drivers, qualified drivers, ambitious teenagers...

[LA Woman3]

But...but...but those buses were not air-conditioned nor did they have bathroom facilities. That was the reason belatedly given by LA offcial as the reason not to use them. They wanted tour buses.

And in the end, they ended up using school buses afterall....

[Leatherneck_MT]

"I am NOT a governor or a mayor and I can figure that one out!!!"

For goodness sakes don't ever become a politician then. Your brains will fall out lol.

[half-cajun]

Is anyone watching C-SPan 2. They are having hearings with N.O. evacuees. It's crazy. One is going on now about the levees being bombed.

[SMARTY]

And the dog will eat my moral compass

[TexasCajun]

He said, "There is nothing in our contract that requires our drivers to work during a hurricane."

"Don't dare use non-union drivers or the International Skweel Bus Union will sue you!"

[pandoraou812]

when i saw those buses sitting there in the water i was shocked. whoever left them there to sit in water ought to have to pay for the repairs etc. common sense says save the people & move whatever you can save to higher ground. that way you have something left to use & not have to replace ...therefore there is more money for other things. everyone knew this storm was coming. where i live we move our boats out into the bay, move anything we can thats in low areas that flood. its called common sense. so i think blanco & nagin need to pay to fix the buses etc that they were neglective in moving right out of their own pockets.

[rightazrain]

They were thoroughly incompetent. I'll never forget Ray Nagin saying, after he claimed to have sent a lot of cops to Las Vegas for R & R: "Get over it, this is a party town."

I really think what was going on is that he knew there were a lot of "ghost" cops on the force collecting salaries, and he was trying to cover up.

Correct me, anyone, if there were really NOLA cops in Vegas. Either way, it was N.O. tax dollars at work.

[WasDougsLamb]

The head of the bus drivers union was asked about the failure of busses to help evacuees.

He said, "There is nothing in our contract that requires our drivers to work during a hurricane."


-----Whether or not it is in the job description, shouldn't that have gone out the window when human lives were at stake? You dont have to wait to be told when caos is happening and you have the means to save lives. You just have to have common sense. Reminds me of that TV show Chico and the Man. He used to say " Its not my job". Seems like that is all any of them were saying in authoritive positions.

[Mr. Brightside]

Seems to me that the brave men from the NY Fire Department who rushed into the WTC were also unionized.

[ViLaLuz]

"The head of the bus drivers union was asked about the failure of busses to help evacuees.

He said, "There is nothing in our contract that requires our drivers to work during a hurricane."

Well... the US taxpayers aren't required to foot his bills now, either.