|
Post by bamaguy on Sept 5, 2005 11:14:53 GMT -5
I post this message for information purposes only. What you choose to do with it is your choice, but it is fact and can be backed up by documents and pictures. First here is a picture of 137 buses that sat in the parking lot not far from the superdome that were NOT used to evacuate people. tinyurl.com/bdkweNext we have this picture of 205 buses that were NOT used to evacuate people. tinyurl.com/c6sa2Next we have this document tinyurl.com/bflojThat shows that NORTA (New Orleans transit authority) has 364 buses. These were also NOT used to evacuate people. This document also shows an additional 111 vehicles that were smaller buses that hold on average 15 people. So if you add all these buses up you get a total bus number of 706 buses. These Buses hold (at least) 50 people and on 1 way trip that is a total of 35,300 people that could have been evacuated. There would have been time to have another trip which would have added another 35,330 people out of town, and lets not forget the 111 smaller buses that hold 15 people which add up to 1665 add 2 trips for a total of 3330. 35,300 35,300 1665 1665 73,930 total And we now have a grand total of 73930 people that COULD have been evacuated, BUT WERE'nt...... While I am leaving out the issue of where to take these people, a simple trip 30 miles inland would have been far better than ther current condition. With this Diasaterous Hurricane bearing down on the city of New Orleans Drastic measures were called upon. However the extreme conditions that were fast approaching the Local authorites saw fit to NOT use these public buses. There will be time for the WHY, the WHO to blame. However we now know that we have proof of incompetency, corruption, blatant disregard on the Local officials part. These pictures and documents are quickly spreading and the news will get out. Where is YOUR finger pointing now?
|
|
mary
New Member
Posts: 18
|
Post by mary on Sept 5, 2005 13:52:49 GMT -5
I have also heard (secondhand) that a 500-page plan put together by the former mayor, Marc Morial, is today floating out there on the Web somewhere that had detailed information about how to evacuate poor residents, bus locations and availabilities, evacuation routes, etc.
It would be tragic if this is true and that an existing plan was not exercised.
|
|
|
Post by bamaguy on Sept 5, 2005 14:02:10 GMT -5
I would appreciate it if you have any info as to the location of this document, could you let me know? Thanx.....this is jst ridiculous, the Mayor gets on TV and demands..quote---"where's the d**n Buses?"--end quote---
Mr.Mayor they were about 1 mile down the road in a parking lot.
Sad and CRIMINAL... These local officials are the biggest HIPOCRITS I have seen in a Very Long time....
|
|
mary
New Member
Posts: 18
|
Post by mary on Sept 5, 2005 14:04:58 GMT -5
Sure will, bamaguy. Somehow I just don't think it's gonna be found on the city of new orleans website - cityofno.com
|
|
mary
New Member
Posts: 18
|
Post by mary on Sept 5, 2005 14:09:37 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by bamaguy on Sept 5, 2005 14:19:04 GMT -5
Thanx, I just looked thru it, it sure is amazing that the Mayor can claim what he is doing ,when he did NOT even follow his own disaster plan.....
|
|
|
Post by Laura on Sept 5, 2005 17:05:36 GMT -5
Excuse me if I sound ignorant, but just from reading the evac plan, it seems not only did he not use the evac plan, but went directly against it. Isn't/wasn't the Superdome in flood water and hurricane wind damage area? I would think so since there seemed to be flooding all around it --- just going by news footage (pics). I mean really, who tells people to go to a shelter that could sustain as much damage as a nearby home. I realize that it could have been much worse, but those poor souls had to live through watching pieces of the roof fly off and wondering if their shelter was really any shelter at all. I don't pretend to anything about New Orleans, but I am also no idiot.
Something has gone terribly wrong in that state and seems to me the Mayor/Govenor had a hand in it. I truly feel for everyone in LA, MS, and AL.
|
|
|
Post by heartbroken on Sept 6, 2005 1:40:18 GMT -5
it's sickening, and the mayor should be tried for crimes against humanity. he can get every high school marching band from westbank to slidell to every parade during mardi gras though can't he!!!!
|
|
mary
New Member
Posts: 18
|
Post by mary on Sept 6, 2005 5:09:28 GMT -5
I was wondering about how many buses get used to ferry voters on election day.
|
|
|
Post by NOLAGIRL4EVER on Sept 6, 2005 9:04:40 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by NolaGirl4Ever on Sept 6, 2005 9:08:01 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by bamaguy on Sept 6, 2005 18:58:49 GMT -5
Have you read the City of New Orleans Hurricnae Evacuation Plan? if you had then you woould know that it called for EVERY PUBLIC Bus to be used to evacuate the poor and elderly. There was PLENTY of time to respond to this hurricane by using the PLAN that was set out for this disaster. president BUSh had to even call and PERSUADE both the Mayor and the Governor to call for a MANDATORY Evacuation....
The Mayor did NOT use his own Disaster plan.
|
|
|
Post by realmike on Sept 7, 2005 20:21:00 GMT -5
bamaguy - what doc do you have - can you share that with us?
Mary - the one you linked to is a rough draft at best. I think the pre-planning definiutely needs to be looked at to find out what went wrong so we (the US) don't repeat this mistake again. My gut tells me that the plan was simply too overwhelming, so it was decided to do nothing but pray. Perhaps this draft was simply something to satisfy a bureaucratic directive to produce something. Or perhaps the 'risk parishes' had actually made several attempts to turn this draft in to a real plan, to be stymied by State and otehr parish officials. - You can't 'turn around' buses to pick up more folks during contraflow. - They are now trying to force people out of their homes - how were tyhey going to force them in to the buses (I like themagic marker strategy, though) - The 'host parishes' and their shelters are not detailed in this document. - Laura: the superdome before katrina and on Saturday was identified as a refuge of last resort, to protect folsk from wind and rain ONLY, with no food or water - even this doc says that folks would leave 'last resort' refuges immediately after the storm.
Lets leave the second guessing to the pros, folks - there is a lot more than meets the eye!
|
|
|
Post by bamaguy on Sept 7, 2005 21:17:48 GMT -5
Here's the link. www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26Read it is very clear calling for the USE of EVERY Form of public transportation. The Mayor didnt use all of the available buses of which there were over 700 that eventually sat and were swamped by the flood waters. After you look at this document you will see the city of New orleans had a Hurricna evacuation plan but didnt Use it nor plan to use it. Why didnt they have drivers on the ready going tru the poor neighborhoods picking up people. Why did the younf Boy had to steal one of these buses and then pick-up some 100 people on one of these buses and drive it al the way to houston? The Mayor did not think the Hurricnae was going to be that bad, president Bush had to even CONVINCE him to evacuate the city. Give it some time the documents will come showing that both the Mayor and the Governor are Responsible for the deaths of thousands.
|
|
|
Post by realmike on Sept 7, 2005 22:17:02 GMT -5
guess I can't read - did not find the specific references you mention. Looks like an overview of a plan, has references to training sessions to be provided by FEMA, training sessions to be provided by state, development of SOPs, documents on handling special needs folks, the fact that shelter won't be available in al circunstances, etc.
This all raises very compelling questions that need to be explored - where is the distinction between fast category 3 or less and slow 3 or worse. (the doc mary found made this distinction) Slow 3 or worse is a different situation, wish we had a better plan that was used (obviously).
If they had a plan, especially for a cat 4, it would have been followed. I don't think these documents represent a real plan at all, and that is somehing that needs to be looked at. Maybe I'm splitting hairs, the result was the same, but it is important to figure out for the future. My gut tells me that the cat 4 situation was basicaly deemed to be impossible, and no one took the risk seriously. Slim chance of this happening in any given politican's watch, even thouigh we all knew it would happen someday.
It was common knowledge (and few of us took it seriously) that evacuation was the only solution for a cat 4, and we all understood that MANY folks couldn't or wouldn't evacuate.
bamaguy, Did you also find photos of the 700 school bus drivers? Did you also find photos of the shelters where they were supposed to drive the busses? - you raise some compelling questions, but clearly have an axe to grind against Nagin. There will be plenty of blame to go around. BTW, did you live in NOLA?
|
|