School Buses Not Good Enough

Published on September 8, 2005 By Island Dog In Politics

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin garnered a ton of publicity with a profanity-laced interview he gave to WWL radio last Thursday, where he blasted President Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco for not coming to rescue his city in time.

However, Nagin's most newsworthy comments - where he explained why he didn't used hundreds of city school buses to evacuate his city's flood victims - went almost unnoticed.

Turns out, Nagin turned his nose up at the yellow buses, demanding more comfortable Greyhound coaches instead. "I need 500 buses, man," he told WWL. "One of the briefings we had they were talking about getting, you know, public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out of here."

Nagin described his response:

"I'm like - you've got to be kidding me. This is a natural disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

While Nagin was waiting for his Greyhound fleet, Katrina's floodwaters swamped his school buses, rendering them unusable.

Link

Comments (Page 2)

ParaTed2k

on Sep 09, 2005

Well, Colon Gene knows how to fail America.

But for once, he isn't wholly wrong. There were failures from the people of New Orleans up to FEMA and Homeland Security. Prs. Bush and Congress put a man in charge of FEMA who (allegedly) padded his resume. They should answer for their lack of investigation of information presented, but the failures in New Orleans had little to do with Brown.. not nothing, but little. Gov. Blonco and Mayor Nagin knew there were 100,000 people with no means of complying with the "mandatory" evacuation, there were assets in place to follow the "New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Plan" but Mayor Nagin chose to whine about luxury rather than use what he had on hand to get the people to safety.

Colon Gene, you say that 700 busses weren't enough to evacuate 100,000 people in 3 days? How long would you have but off using those busses while insisting greyhound supply busses from everywhere else in the country... for no better excuse than "comfort".

I wonder... if the "New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Plan" had have included prior coordination with other cities and parishes in the area.. and Mayor Nagin actually complied with it.. just think how many more busses would have been immediately available.. this is why emergency management exists, so all the logistics coordination is done long before there is a need.

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