Blanco rescinds Nagin evacuation order - my title

9/7/05 | me

[nicmarlo]

It's been great chatting with ya, nopardons...but time for me to call it a night. Hope you have a nice rest of the evening...see you later. : )

[nopardons]

I see that we are in complete agreement and think the same way. :-)

[nopardons]

It's been lovely!

Nighty nighty, pleasant dreams............

[Collier]

I believe in the end, Bill O'Reilly got him to say that if the local govt. declares your home to be hazardous to the area (mold, toxicity, etc.), it needs to be bulldozed, and that would be a way to allow a forced evacuation.

[Collier]

oooooohhh

What's that story? I heard a LA caller to Rush the other day refer to him also. Didn't go into details, but she slammed the Mayor, Governor and NO politics real good.

[bellas_sister]

The liberal wackos (Dean, Pelosi...)have got her all paranoid that Bush is going to "take over" and take her power away from her. I can't believe how many obvious mistakes she is making.

I'm so upset at how many people have lost and are continuing to lose their lives because this b#$^ can't make a decision. This is an absolute outrage.

[lastchance]

I did some additional research and found the following documents: http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/plans/EOPSupplement1a.pdf STATE OF LOUISIANA EOP SUPPLEMENT 1A SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA HURRICANE EVACUATION AND SHELTERING PLAN http://www.epa.gov/earth1r6/6sf/pdffiles/la_emergency_assistance_disaster_act.pdf LOUISIANA EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE AND DISASTER ACT OF 1993 The LOUISIANA EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE AND DISASTER ACT OF 1993 is incorporated by reference into the STATE OF LOUISIANA EOP SUPPLEMENT 1A SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA HURRICANE EVACUATION AND SHELTERING PLAN. In EAP the Parish President ( Mayor of Louisiana) is given the authority to declare a Local State of Emergency. His or her power to order an evacuation is included in that authority. As to the statement "The same power to order an evacuation conferred upon the Governor is also delegated to each political subdivision of the State by Executive Order." In my opinion it pertains to a Statewide Declaration of Emergency. This allows the Parish Presidents ( Mayor of New Orleans) to act on the Governor's behalf and order the evacuation at the Parish level. Otherwise the Governor would have to order an evacuation for each and every Parish. This would be very time consuming and overly burdensome. Since the Parish President ( Mayor of New Orleans) clearly has Authority to evacuate the Parish for Local Emergencies the Statement would not make sense unless you apply it to Statewide emergency declarations. The key word is delegate. Any how that is my humble opinion.

[supercat]

Someone had better make her get her POMPOUS HEARTLESS ARSE down into the areas that need to be fully evacuated and FORCE her to spend a few days there..without fancy food, digs or water. No cocktails, no advisers (like james witt) and no body guards. Just rats, snakes, steaming toxic water and a simple house that is full of mold.

Even if 95% of the buildings are unsafe, does that mean that people who live in the other 5% should be forced to leave, if they have adequate food, water, and generator-fuel supplies to last until utilities can be restored? Not everyplace is flooded, after all, and I think the people who don't have the means to stay behind safely have already tried to leave.

[BurbankKarl]

They wont clear out the rich white people whose houses were dry...

[GoLightly]

I found what I was looking for in the Louisiana statutes:

http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=85673

§727. Powers of the parish president; penalties for violations

F. In addition to any other powers conferred upon the parish president by the constitution, laws, or by a home rule charter or plan of government, such authority may do any or all of the following:

(4) Subject to any applicable requirements for compensation, commandeer or utilize any private property if he finds this necessary to cope with the local disaster.

(5) Direct and compel the evacuation of all or part of the population from any stricken or threatened area within the boundaries of the parish if he deems this action necessary for mitigation, response, or recovery measures.

Control over the military force in NO is held by state's Governor or her agent(s), so Nagin can only use NOPD to enforce his mandatory evacuation order. How many officers are in town & how many are off in Las Vegas for R&R? Next, Nagin's power is limited to areas within NO. IOW, he can force people to go to designated places within his jurisdiction, but he can't send them to any place outside of his jurisdiction, which gives the ball to Blanco. State powers would need to be triggered to force people out of Nagin's jurisdiction (parish).

[lastchance]

I am not sure how you read that he can only evacuate N.O. residents to areas of safety within N.O. The paragraph reads: " Direct and compel the evacuation of all or part of the population from any stricken or threatened area within the boundaries of the parish if he deems this action necessary for mitigation, response, or recovery measures."
This does not imply that evacuation is intra Parish only. It simply says the Parish President can order said evacuation for those living within the Parish.
There is no mention of where they are to be evacuated to. Another part of the law does mention Parishes receiving evacuees. But honestly I just don't recall where that is. Probably in the EOP for Louisiana.
In another post it had a quote from the LA Attorney General saying Nagin did indeed have that authority.
As for enforcing the evacuation. I agree that unless the Governor put other resources at his disposal Nagin would have to use NOPD. But the paragraph does not mention by what means an evacuation will be enforced.
It is easy to see that neither the mayor and other city officials or the governor acted in accordance with the duties and powers of their office to assure the full safety of N.O. citizens.