Of course, this WASN'T the only path out of New Orleans.
And if I recall, there weren't TOO many people who tried to cross it.
Gretna, it appears, is still standing..
All that matters is that it was a path and was available to evacuees out of harms way. The clowns closed down the bridge w/o just cause. If I was a fed prosecutor, I'd bring the sheriff up on charges of violating their rights under the color of law.
what routes? name them smarty.
I lived in Baton Rouge for 6 years and have been to NO on countless occasions. The best and safest way out of Les Ville is the I10 corridor that has, for years, been designated for hurricane evacuation (It's posted all along the I10 corridor, for crying out loud). Had the mayor of NO and the dufus Gov. of Louisiana given any thought what so ever to the evacuation of the city of New Orleans and known the history and construction of the I10 corridor they could have significantly reduced the number of suffering citizens of Les Ville (New Orleans). If, on the other hand, they didn't know it then they must not have been familiar with emergency hurricane plans that designated the I10 corridor as the OFFICIAL evacuation route of the New Orleans area.
I had just arrived in BR when Andrew hit Houma and it came straight up Airline Highway and clobbered Baton Rouge. No power, water, emergency services for a week. Baton Rouge fared well though because we had an EMERGENCY PLAN! We handled the influx of evacuees from the southeast well and we had NOTHING like New Orleans had. The state agencies handled the emergency and FEMA came in later to help with the clean up. I was lucky, I got stuck at work, I'm in medicine and got stuck at the largest hospital in the deep south. We were never in danger of anything failing even once.
The people of Baton Rouge are trained for this, they are aware that any large hurricane on the gulf coast (of La) will immediately make that city a staging area and an evacuation point. Believe you me this has always been the fable of the grasshopper and the ant. New Orleans has always laid back and counted on luck to push a 'cane away from them. While Baton Rouge had a plan in effect and it worked well. During Andrew, as I recall, we had 10 deaths that were attributed to the storm.
Y'all are right about state and local government in New Orleans and that stupid excuse for a governor but be aware that Baton Rouge is about 180 degrees from the political climate in New Orleans. Low crime rate (but that has changed dramatically since the evacuation), much more conservative than Les Ville, more gun permits, and much less poverty and welfare state folks. Baton Rouge is a slow moving, deep southern city that one would be proud to live in (as I was). I've heard (from dear friends down there) that this will be tough for the citizens of Baton Rouge but they will make it through this ordeal as well, and be better for it.
In short, don't judge the good people of Louisiana by the actions of the inept politicians or the looters in New Orleans, because that city has always been different from the rest of southern Louisiana. The REAL southern Louisiana is genteel, and moral, and friendly, and helpful, and neighborly, and trusting, add a little "devil may care" in that mix and you have a wonderful place to live.
Katrine flushed the toilet that was New Orleans and it overflowed. Now the good and decent citizens of southern Louisiana will have to clean it up, and they will, and they will do it in spite of the dimwits in the state office building. They always have, and they always will.
Every time we had a hurricane alert for Louisiana we would have people, citizens of Baton Rouge, that would draw you a map on a cocktail napkin of exactly what would happen if the 'cane dead hit New Orleans. I got good at it myself with in my first year there. We all knew that it wouldn't be the wind that would destroy New Orleans, nor would it be the driving rain, it would be the levee failures and the pump failures. EVERYONE I knew was aware of this very scenario, so where were the politicians, had they never studied the facts that all the people of southern Louisiana knew? That's just not believable!
I've been livid for 2 weeks about this so pardon my rant, I just had to get that off my chest.