Please don't think I'm an apologist for Nagin. His performance before and after the storm was disgraceful. But......,
Had he deployed these buses (no doubt he should have) how many people would have hopped on the bus? My guess is precious few would have boarded these buses prior to the storm. It is my belief that the great majority of those who did not evacuate CHOSE not to. It was not a lack of "resources" or "infrastructure" or even information that prompted most of those people to stay; it was stupidity, greed, and stubborn pride.
Hindsight is 20/20 and now I think we can all agree that everyone would be better off now had Nagin simply given away buses to anyone who could drive them in return for the agreement that they would leave town immediately. Sadly, had this offer been made and all 2000 buses taken, I'd bet that less than 200 buses would have left the city, each with about five people on board. But even then we'd have 200 more buses available and 1,000 fewer people stranded. As it stands, all the buses are lost and not one soul left the city on them.
Remember this is in hindsight. I'm not suggesting that municipalities give away buses prior to storms but simply pointing out that looking back on a disaster, one will always find ways to have more effectively responded.
That said, I will again state for the record that Nagin is a disgrace and a total failure. We can only hope that his political career is over, but I fear that if a Mayor can smoke crack on camera and make a comeback, that Nagin has little to fear in regards to his political viability. Especially when it's so easy to BLAME IT ON BUSH!
Look, all of the people that went to the Superdome and the Convention Center OBVIOUSLY took the threat seriously. They would have CERTAINLY gotten on the buses. Look, these people aren't stupid. If the mayor would have said "we have a choice. We can put you up in the Superdome, but the storm is COMING RIGHT TOWARD US. We have a bunch of buses and we can evacuate you to Baton Rouge, which is at least outside the flood zone in case the levees break. It's only 80 miles (and one hour) away, so if nothing happens we'll bring you back." Now, these people are poor, but they're not STUPID! if they had their choice between the Superdome that is IN THE PATH OF THE STORM, or Baton Rouge that is 80 miles away and to the WEST of the storm, what do you think they would have chosen? The point is the mayor didn't even TRY to convince these people. He simply thought like you and figured "they won't want to leave, so why bother?" That's just irresponsible.
Even if only 75-80% of the people that ended up at the Superdome and the Civic center got on the buses, you're still talking 35,000-40,000 people Nagin would have been able to evacuate if he only would have TRIED. He didn't even FREAKING TRY! He just told the citizens of his city "you're on your own". The only thing we can do for you is put you up like animals at the Superdome. That is NOT being a leader.
Nagin simply didn't have FAITH in his own people and figured they were too stupid to refuse his offer so he didn't even MAKE it. If that's not criminal, its at least condescending.
And then he has the GALL to get on the radio and start cussing at everyone when his "lets-shove-in-the-superdome-like-sardines" plan didn't work.
Also, let's not forget that the levees didn't break until Tuesday at around noon. All Tuesday morning, all of the mainstream media that are now blaming President Bush were saying New Orleans had "dodged another bullet". If Nagin Had evacuated his people (as many as he could anyway) to Baton Rouge, they would have still been in Baton Rouge by the time the levees broke and would have avoided the flooding and simply stayed in Baton Rouge. From Baton Rouge, they could have simply been evacuated to Texas or elsewhere that had room.
My point is the MAYOR DIDN'T EVEN TRY bus evacuation. His little PEA BRAIN simply didn't believe it could be done and he didn't have enough faith in his people and his city workers to believe that they could do it.
Can you imagine if George Patton had said "These Germans are just too tough for my guys". We should just surrender. That's, in effect, what Nagin did: He surrenderd to the hurricane without even firing a shot.
And THAT is inexcusable. Couple that with his constant attempts to shift the glame to the (equally incompetent Governor) and the (admittedly slow) feds, and OF COURSE we had a man-made disaster on our hands!
The whole thing with Nagin,buses,and the New Orleans mindset is difficult for any sane human to fathom.
I look at it this way,the buses were there,the people were there.
But the mayor?
In truth, what kept a lot of people from leaving was that EVERYONE wasn't leaving. Most people understood that leaving their homes to a city still occupied by a lot of people was almost a guaranteed looting of one's abandoned home.