Bravo, sir.

“The Busses that Saved New Orleans” A movie you’ll never see.

I guess Mayor Nagin and company didn’t feel like getting off their asses before the storm or stopping the criminals after the storm hit.

So now the local “leadership” (ahem) consists of telling everyone else to “get off their asses” to stop the looters and save the day for them.

Exactly. New Orleans has always been the “throw me something, mister” capital of the world, believing that they were owed a free ride. And now it must be someone else’s fault that things have gone badly. Our local and state response to Katrina has been abysmal - and our Democratic leadership is hoping that Bush hatred will allow them to deflect all criticism directly onto the President.

Waco was in 1993. OKC was 1995.

You’re right. Thanks—I’ve corrected.

From one of the satellite pictures of the flooded part of New Orleans, you can see those busses sit right next to the freeway that runs to the Superdome. The freeway, except for the low portion next to the busses, is completely dry. They could have had those things staged on the freeway mid-morning Monday and been able to use them. There also appears to be another collection of busses between the above picture and the Superdome, so there’s more that could have been used.

Just to be fair, traffic was stop-and-go for hundreds of miles on the evac routes, so the trip to Houston or other safe harbor would have likely taken a lot more than 7 hours, and with contraflow on the way back roundtrip time might have been over 24 hours. Still would have been a lot better than having the buses rust in the muck though.

Do you have a link to that pic you’re talking about? It’s worth adding to the post.

That’s a terrific post and a great shot. I kept wondering when the storm was approaching and the media kept saying that the poor had no means out of the city, “where are the school buses?” “where are the metro buses?”

Thanks for answering that question.

In the Emergency Disaster Plan for SE Louisiana there is a lot of emphasis placed on staging areas for those who have no transportation, refugee centers, evacuation routes, storm surge issues, communication, various categories of hurricanes, etc. This document is signed by officials of all the affected parishes. Looks to me like the state REALLY dropped the ball & is now trying to pin the blame on the feds. Link

Not only should Mr. Ebbert, the Mayor, the Govenor and the State and Local heads of Emergency management lose their jobs, they should be charged with negligent manslaughter. These people are totally unworthy of holding office and should be removed immediately. Nothing of the sort will happen though. Maybe we will get lucky a and they will be overwhelmed by guilt and commit suicide. Chuck

They might have reserved one contra-flow lane especially for convoys of busses. Anyway, these are just school busses - what about public transit busses? Presumably New Orleans has some of those too? Or was the mayor et al afraid of paying overtime charges to the drivers.

While there are 205 busses in this picture, I’d be willing to bet the total bus fleet of the New Orleans school system is much greater. And there were some 500+ transit buses in the NORTA system.

Not to mention charter bus companies, church buses and private school busses that could have been commandeered and pressed into service

Altogether there must have been between 1,000 and 2,000 busses in NO which could have been used to carry evacuees. Even if they held 50 on average (your 66 number was children 3 to a seat), you couild have transported between 50,0000 and 100,000 people on each full round trip. Two round trips might have saved everyone.

As we said in the Army: Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

The use of busses rather than cars also helps reduce gridlock during evacuations. Especially if the evac stages are ordered promptly.

I agree that the state and city government should have provided free evacuation busses out of the city. But how many of the people who stayed behind would have taken advantage of them? The city already declared a mandatory evacuation. Many who stayed chose to stay.

Where would they be taken? The AstroDome did not open it’s doors until after things turned really bad.

The mayor or governor should have declared martial law and forced everyone out whether they wanted to go or not.

I also wondered why there were reports of tourists on Sunday that wanted to get out but there were no flights. The feds should have stepped in then and demanded that the airlines mobilize to evac anyone who wanted out. That would be a proper role for the feds at that point.

I’m surprised just how easy the governor is getting off. The governor can call up the guard and militia and just about anyone else in the state to help. The governor is typically the one in charge during emergencies. The federal government is there to help.

Thanks for posting this. I too had wondered about city transportation when it was reported that many could not leave. It is just so easy to blame Bush for everything. Some where and at some time people must stand up and take responsibility for what they do. I also can not understand how those interviewed by the media keep saying, “they” turned off the electricity, the water etc… like some evil demon was turning off switches to make them suffer. It is a sad situation that now is being turned into a racial episode. Go figure.

Michelle has the story about the kid and the school bus. This guy picked up a bunch of people and took them to the Astrodome? He had more brains than that whole bunch of DEMOCRATIC city leaders. So, of course, they want to prosecute him for taking the bus. Unbelievable.

the snob: While you’re certainly correct, do note that the opposing lanes of traffic were practically devoid of activity for all intents and purposes. It would’ve been a no-brainer to open those up for additional traffic and bus use.

That kid that drove the bus deserves a medal.

The governor and mayor deserve a firing squad.…

Jabbar Gibson for mayor!

Looking at this picture of busses make me sick. The mayor of new orleans could have used this busses to evacuate his people before the storm. Now he’s blaming GWB.….…… I was watching one of the refugee on tv the other day, complaining about the terrible mre, goodness, this are the food that our soldiers eat.

I was so pleased to see these comments and your statements, as that was exactly our feelings this morning when we heard Terry Ebbert ranting and raving about FEMA, where in the heck was he and all the officials of New Orleans, I’m sure they went into hiding or high ground somewhere they were safe. Now it’s very easy for them to blame our government. My heart goes out to all those stranded in such unhealthy conditions. Shame on you Terry Ebbert and Mayor Nagin for not utilizing those school buses prior to the hurricane hitting your city, you should all hang your heads in shame and leave the office your in, as you are useless.

I bet there were plenty of buses for the people on election day.

Jimbo..you are right and looks as if they did…via ap on sunday

”…The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should.He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said ,President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.”

Link

not sure why the President had to appeal for the evacuation, and Mayor Nagin telling “everyone that could should” is tantamount to say if can’t tough?

also, it would seem to me that if a bus/train/city bus and boats people! Natchez? coordination (which should have been in place) lots of the transportation would have taken place at the latest hours…ensuring that those who needed it were out. Also, if a tranportation route for people were acessable wouldn’t those people be more inclined to leave?

And if the levee didn’t bust there would be no need to house people for any real length of time. High School gyms (and similar) would have sufficed.

For a city surrounded by levees, the notion it wouldn’t flood seems impossible…why didn’t LA OES prepare for flood?

I guess what I am asking, was even opening the Superdome a big miscalculation?

The politicians say they asked for more money for the levees, but it was refused by the feds. In my professional life when resources were refused, I remembered what the Army taught me 50 years ago in Infantry NCO School and asked myself “what do I do now?”, and then came up with a plan of action, not always a perfect one, but one that addressed the problem and that I couldimplement. The City of New Orleans administration seems to never have asked “We are worried about the levees and what should we do if they fail?” The answer seems to have been to blame the federal overnment and not go near the water. I’ll bet there were no city administration people frying on those freeways watching a rescue helicopter that could have carried water on the outbound trip, but with no direction, no place to go, no food, no water, and no john. If you want to pass blame, try the mayor. He and his city council are the guys most responsible for the first response in the event of a catastrophe and they just didn’t do anything.

Nagin was on CNN complaining that the Federal Government just wanted to send in schoolbus drivers to drive buses out, and he says that isn’t good enough. They needed to bring in all the best Greyhound bus drivers all around the country. The CNN reporter asked him if he’d be willling to declare Martial Law and he said he did, but he had no idea if the governor had. THEN the CNN reporter said that he thought it was dumb (My word) but the constitution did require that the FEDs not go in to the area without permission and an invitation from the local officials. Nagin said, “REally?” He clearly had no clue. Then he went on to say he didn’t care, we didn’t wait for an invitation from Iraq so we shouldn’t wait for an invitation to go in to his city. And the CNN reporter agreed.

Interesting that the mayor says that school buses won’t do. I notice that government agencies bus their folks around Washington DC in what appear to me to be school buses (“blue birds”).

I hope this is a mis-quote, I can’t believe that the mayor would rather his suffering citizens wait for transportation with air-conditioning (for all I know, New Orleans school buses have air conditioning)

I read repeatedly that Nagin is a real nice guy, but he is obviously way over his head as Mayor of New Orleans in a crisis. He has refused to take responsibility to such an extent that you would guess he was a visiting dignitary appauled at the idiots running NO. Now Drudge has a link to a Huffington post by Randall Robinson, the reparations guy, reporting that blacks are eating corpses to survive. (That will encourage people to open their homes to victims!)

After re-reading the nolo.com article on the actual evacuation order, I get the impression that even if the busses had been pressed into service, they would have only been used to ferry people to the Superdome, since that was the designated place to wait out the hurricane itself.

When the mayor tells people to bring a couple days worth of food if they’re going to the Superdome, it’s clear he wasn’t expecting the levee to break and render the city completely unusable.

The total drowning of the city was forecast as a possibility for a Cat 5, so the contingency plans should not have stopped at the Superdome. And I think they actually capped the Superdome crowd at a low 10,000 initially.

Nagin also had 364 public transit system buses to augment the school buses for a mass evacuation.

http://billhobbs.com/hobbsonline/007188.html

Good catch Bill

There looks to be another school bus compound on the large scale sat photo. Follow the highway to the left of the main bus compound, past the fork. “Down” and to the “left” of the highway intersection appears to be another lot of similarly sized & shaped yellow rectangles. Are these more buses even closer to the Super Dome?

Oops, down and to the RIGHT of the intersection, as viewed on my laptop screen.

Yeah, I’ve seen that. I think elgato pointed it out a while ago. I’d like to see higher-rez imagery or hear from someone who knows before saying anything definite about that second lot. It could be construction equipment, or something else. The yellow shapes look shorter than the ones in the confirmed lot—they could be the dreaded short buses I guess. But I can’t say for sure.

If Ebbert has any honor, he’ll resign,… It’s nice you could sneak in some levity.

Honor, shame, responsibility…these are meaningless dictionary entries among the ranking “public servants” in LA. Not one that I’ve seen or read of in the coverage has comported themself in anything that scanned as a leadership manner. From the governor to the NO police department’s precinct captains, not one ever had anything resembling a grasp—never mind control—of the situation they were facing.

Thank God we had Rudy on 9-11-01.

A few historical tidbits on the governance of Louisiana: From http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/0374108307-excerpt.asp ” Of the eight men and women elected to statewide office in 1991, three — Governor Edwin Edwards, elections commissioner Jerry Fowler, and insurance commissioner Jim Brown — were later convicted of crimes. The FBI said more people — sixty-six — were indicted on public-corruption charges in Louisiana in 1999 than in any other state.” Then there was Gov. Earl Long — ” Here was a man who had a psychotic breakdown on the floor of the Louisiana legislature, bounced between two mental hospitals in less than a month, got himself sprung out—only to cavort with a young woman who literally symbolized sin. That man then announced his candidacy for Congress! And he WON! He won the House seat in a hard-fought election during the dog days of the summer of 1960, in the middle of Louisiana, the Pentecostal heartlands!” from http://www.insidenorthside.com/oct_nov03/art11.htm Now that’s a dysfunctional political system if there ever was one. It’s a wonder that any part of Louisiana was still above water before Katrina hit.

I agree with you that they could have gotten probably ten thousand people out on the city busses, had they had drivers. However, I have to take strong exception to your “it takes five hours” argument.

My brother in law, who is in the navy, was told to leave New Orleans for Houston by Sunday morning. He left at around four o’clock in the morning, and by ten he was only halfway to Houston, so he stopped at a motel along the way, and ended up never making it to Houston, as he was told to go to Ft Worth instead. The traffic along the highways was moving so slowly at that point that there is no way that more than one trip could have been made. That trip should have been made, yes, but there is no way that 100,000 people could have been evacuated, even if they’d started on Friday afternoon once they knew that it was heading in that direction (rather than it heading actually towards Houston).

Uh, okay. Maybe I’m really, really stupid or something, but, umm, why are those buses STILL sitting there?

“Yeah, you’re right: you ARE stupid! - They’re UNDER WATER brain-dead pond scum! Sheesh!”

No. They’re not. Most of ‘em look like they’re up to about the top of the bumpers or so …certainly less then the top of the wheels, or the engines. So? - Well, what matters is their engine’s ignition systems are TOTALLY above water (that’s figuring that the buses are using gasoline engines; for those buses with diesel engines, the water I’m seeing in the pix wouldn’t be nearly as much an issue). As long as the ignition system is above water, they’ll run just fine. (Fuel systems - the gas tank & fuel lines - are generally secure from the atmosphere, so water isn’t going to get in …so fuel contamination from water shouldn’t be a problem either.)

The only problem is water backfilling into the exhaust system through the tailpipes …you’d need to fabricate some tailpipe extensions to rise above the water level (and you’d have to plan for some kind of hand-pump - battery, or bicycle pump powered - attachment to that extension to allow the existing water to be siphoned, or pumped, out …no, they don’t have to totally dry, nor does the fitment have to be totally secure: “good ‘nuff” will work just fine) …any decent tailpipe shop, or welding shop with a little experience, could weld up the necessaries by the dozens in a few hours.

Prob’ly need some volunteers who can twirl a socket-wrench while holding their breaths (or use a snorkel) for the time necessary to connect ‘em, of course. And drivers. I’d guesstimate that it would take about 15-20 man-minutes per bus to hook ‘em up and get those things running, once you’d done a few.

Regardless, it’s hardly rocket science to get these running, and into service.

Why isn’t this being done? Looks like the buses are there, at least. People still need moved out of the city. Probably have more volunteers - and suitable tailpipe “kits” - in the surrounding areas than you’d know what to do with in just a few hours, were someone to ask.

I’M asking, at least.

The screwed up status quo hardly has to be maintained for the political benefit of the current incompetents, does it than? People need to quit dicking around and get those people out of there, and screw the politician’s trying to cover their own incompetent sorry asses.

Or you could use a truck to tow each bus up the on-ramp, which would get it out of the water, and the upward tilt would probably drain the exhaust.

What puzzles me is why New Orleans didn’t have a disaster plan in place years ago. I grew up there. It was common knowledge as long ago as Hurricane Camille that a big hurricane would overtop the levees and flood the city. My dad always kept an axe in the attic, in case of rising floodwaters. Everyone knew.

Also common knowledge was the incompetence and corruption in City Hall and the NOPD.

Not intending to stereotype New Orleans (I get enough of that already), but… I wonder how much trouble was caused by the city’s “don’t worry, be happy” attitude. By both individuals and government. Charming most of the time, infuriating sometimes, and deadly now.

So many failures, on so many levels.

More Buses?

The lack of communication coupled with the fact that these folks probably never had to face such a disaster,so therefore had no reference point,add to that lack of self-preservation,poverty,and no leadership qualities from empty-headed local elected officials in times of trouble=chaaos,but thank goodness,only for LESS THAN A WEEK.Things will be going a little more smoothly now that NO is evacuated totally and all the people are being fed and hosed elsewhere.The drama queens in the MSM will have to look elsewhere.

hopefully,not HOSED,but HOUSED!

The failure was administrative. As such, the buck stops in one place, and one place only:

The Whitehouse.

The local failure of stranded buses is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the systemic f**k-ups that come straight from the top.

I’m a Republican, but Bush failed.

Shameful.

Please read this.…

Why did the Bush Administration fail to act according to the National Response Plan they created in December of 2004 to deal with an incident like Katrina? What do you do when the words on the paper don’t match the action in the field? People are dying today in New Orleans because of the failure to provide immediate aid are dead in part because of the negligence of Michael Chertoff. That is a harsh judgment, but if you will take time to read the National Response Plan that was signed into effect in December of 2004 there is no other reasonable conclusion.

The current effort by the Bush Administration to blame the victims in Louisiana and Mississippi is bad enough, but they are in big trouble once Americans take the time to understand that they the Administration ignored it’s own plan for dealing with a threat like Katrina. Why did they fail to implement the plan until it was too late to save lives along the Gulf Coast?

Don’t take my word for it, read the plan yourself. You can download it at http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/ asse…NRPbaseplan.pdf

The National Response Plan was accepted and implemented by Bush Administration in December 2004. According to the PREFACE, President Bush, “directed the development of a new National Response Plan (NRP) to align Federal coordination structures, capabilities, and resources into a unified, all discipline, and all-hazards approach to domestic incident management. . . .The end result is vastly improved coordination among Federal, State, local, and tribal organizations to help save lives and protect America’s communities by increasing the speed, effectiveness, and efficiency of incident management.”

Efforts by Chertoff and other Administration spinmeisters to pin the blame on the delayed response on State and local authorities does not hold water. Although the NRP recognizes that State and local authorities have a responsibility to ask for help, the NRP correctly provides a provision to take proactive steps to deal with a threat. On page 43 of the NRP the section is titled, “Proactive Federal Response to Catastrophic Events” (which I have copied and pasted below: The NRP establishes policies, procedures, and mechanisms for proactive Federal response to catastrophic events. A catastrophic event is any natural or manmade incident, including terrorism, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, and/or government functions. A catastrophic event could result in sustained national impacts over a prolonged period of time; almost immediately exceeds resources normally available to State, local, tribal, and private-sector authorities in the impacted area; and significantly interrupts governmental operations and emergency services to such an extent that national security could be threatened. All catastrophic events are Incidents of National Significance.

Implementation of Proactive Federal Response Protocols

Protocols for proactive Federal response are most likely to be implemented for catastrophic events involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive weapons of mass destruction, or large magnitude earthquakes or other natural or technological disasters in or near heavily populated areas.

Guiding Principles for Proactive Federal Response Guiding principles for proactive Federal response include the following: ■ The primary mission is to save lives; protect critical infrastructure, property, and the environment; contain the event; and preserve national security. ■ Standard procedures regarding requests for assistance may be expedited or, under extreme circumstances, suspended in the immediate aftermath of an event of catastrophic magnitude. ■ Identified Federal response resources will deploy and begin necessary operations as required to commence life-safety activities. ■ Notification and full coordination with States will occur, but the coordination process must not delay or impede the rapid deployment and use of critical resources. States are urged to notify and coordinate with local governments regarding a proactive Federal response. ■ State and local governments are encouraged to conduct collaborative planning with the Federal Government as a part of “steady-state” preparedness for catastrophic incidents.

Implementation Mechanisms for Proactive Federal Response to Catastrophic Events The NRP Catastrophic Incident Supplement (described in the Catastrophic Incident Annex) addresses resource and procedural implications of catastrophic events to ensure the rapid and efficient delivery of resources and assets, including special teams, equipment, and supplies that provide critical lifesaving support and incident containment capabilities. These assets may be so specialized or costly that they are either not available or are in insufficient quantities in most localities.

The procedures outlined in the NRP Catastrophic Incident Supplement are based on the following: ■ The pre-identification of Federal assets and capabilities; ■ The strategic location of pre-identified assets for rapid deployment; and ■ The use of pre-scripted mission assignments for Stafford Act declarations, or individual agency authority and funding, to expedite deployment upon notification by DHS (in accordance with procedures established in the NRP Catastrophic Incident Supplement) of a potential catastrophic event.

Agencies responsible for these assets will keep DHS apprised, through the HSOC, of their ongoing status and location until the JFO is established. Upon arrival at the scene, Federal assets will coordinate with the Unified Command, the SFLEO, and the JFO (or its forward elements) when established. Demobilization processes, including full coordination with the JFO Coordination Group, are initiated either when the mission is completed or when it is determined the magnitude of the event does not warrant continued use of the asset.

While the Bush Administration is to be commended for coming up with a plan for dealing with terrorism and large scale disasters, it must be condemned for its abject failure to implement the NRP. And, specific heads must role starting with Michael Chertoff and the head of FEMA.

The buses in NO have been counted in whole or in part but there has been no mention of the buses that the Governor could have commandeered from throughout the southern regions of Louisiana starting Friday with the evacuation commencing at first light on Saturday - 48 hours before Katrina struck.

Nothing has been said about the effect of a Cat 5 on the Superdome. A cat 4 flooded it and nearly took the roof and that was at 135 mph. On Sunday and 24 hours before Katrina struck the winds were at 175 mph sustained, with gusts over 202 mph and a 30 ft storm surge on top of which would have been normal storm wave action was bearing down on NO.

The Superdome would have lost its entire roof and the wind would have circled around the interior like a centrifuge. All or most would have been killed. I spent that week end in a state of horrific anxiety and I was so livid at the catatonic Governor who was unable to verbalize any thought but the cover her… statement that “President Bush called and said this should be a mandatory evacuation” and a mayor who was mumbling about his discussions with the city lawyers about the legality of a mandatory evacuation so I figured out an evacuation plan to keep myself from going nuts.

Someone asked where they would all go and much was made about a supposed conversation between Governor Perry of Texas and Mayor Nagin of New Orleans to the point that it was not possible to arrange before the event. First it would not have been the Mayor who would have called it would have been Governor Blanco and as a former resident of the Great State of Texas and knowing something about Governor Perry, the answer would have been YES! How they would have been accommodated would have been worked out in Texas as it has been but it was never even given consideration by Mayor Nagin/Governor BLanco. The poor did not matter and that was what had me so angry.

Now all the recriminations and lack of caring have been projected onto President Bush who did care - recall the naming of a disaster area in advance of the storm, done only one time before in US history. Recall too that it was President Bush who called and asked for a mandatory evacuation - not a usual circumstance as it is for the Local and State officials in these circumstances to make that call.

Today the Mayor is saying that there had never been a mandatory evacuation, so essentially he had done his best by verbalizing it, as though you do not have to follow such a declaration by actually DOING A MANDATORY EVACUATION! Using this grand pool of buses from LA and NO using a grid of localized embarkation areas, a million people, if need be, could have been evacuated from the greater NO area over 36+ hours. It just required a mayor and a governor of spine, leadership and a can do attitude. Rudi and George did not whine and ring hands, they ACTED!

I noted something else over that weekend. When they closed the inbound lane to inbound traffic, that entire 4-5 lanes remained EMPTY! This was shown hour after hour as the media showed traffic in the normal out of city lanes. The idea of contraflow is to allow all the lanes to go away or in as the circumstance demands and I have driven under those circumstances in California. This could/should have been regulated by the state police. As it was, this set of lanes could have been exclusively used by buses two lanes going in from other areas of LA and 2-3 lanes going outbound since they were never used by traffic in the usual contraflow manner.

Just wanted to correct a small misconception that’s been circulating regarding Jabbar Gibson, the young man who drove the school bus to the Astrodome. Most press accounts have stated that he “stole” a bus from New Orleans. Jabbar was on Fox the other night and told Greta Van Susteren that he simply went to the bus garage, got some keys off the peg board inside the building, and matched the keys to the bus using the numbers on the keychain. He didn’t find a random bus on the street; he did what any normal person would do and got the keys from the bus garage.

I linked to your story about the school busses on my blog. I used two of the pictures. Is that okay? No copyright issues are there? Wanted to make sure. I noticed the html had changed and the images wouldn’t show anymore. I changed it so now they work again. But, that got me worried maybe I’m not supposed to use these. I’m new to this blogging game. Love your site, though. Especially the creative name.

More buses one block east of Algiers Point Public Library. (Use google and the post-Katrina image)

I think the bus situation has been oversimplified. First off, you need drivers who know how to drive the buses. The pool of them were people also trying to deal with the impending hurricane. Do you think they would have all shown up for work? If they had taken any Joe off the street who said they’d drive and then that driver crashed and harmed passengers, people would be screaming about that too?

Then given the history and troubles with crime in the city, wouldn’t you need someone providing security on the buses? After seeing what happened in the Super Dome and Convention Center, you have to consider that those were the same people they’d be evacuating on a bus. They’d probably have thugs on them stealing from and terrorizing the passengers, if not raping and murdering them. Who would provide the security? It’s not practical to use the cops to do it. They don’t have that big of a force and they were needed in the city.

Would people have gone to central points to load the buses? Some yes, but I doubt most would have at the time. People had an opportunity to go to shelters (albeit some that turned into nightmares) before Katrina hit and didn’t. Would they have gone to the buses? Were all the buses in good working order and fully fueled too? Would people have died on the buses from the heat sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for hours on end?

There are so many possibilities and they aren’t as rosey as people are making them sound. Some people were evacuated from the city by transit buses according to refugees in the TX shelters anyway. People are making the utilization of all the buses sound simple and a surefire way to completely evacuate the city prior to the storm. I just don’t see it that way. I doubt any large city has a workable plan in place to do a complete evacuation in the event of something so bad hitting them.

New Orleans is pretty much a poor city. To have a great plan that’s feasible takes a lot more money and resources than they have. To deal with such a catastrophic event can’t be their burden alone, even early on. There’s probably blame at every level for not doing things properly and I think it’s unfair to try to put the blame entirely on the city and state. The fact remains that they were in dire need of assistance right away. No city could have dealt with such a catastrophe early on is the way I see it.

The LA National Guard was off fighting for our country in Iraq. The state stepped up to the plate to help us on a national level. They deserve our country to do the same for them instead of saying you should have.…..could have.……implement a plan you didn’t have the resources to carry out.

Your post is very interesting, to the point and you are right in almost every reguard… but there is one problem.…

I have seen the word “Blogosphere” in your writtings… that is the dumbest thing i have ever heard… Don’t be a tool!