My email to MSNBC on Katrina aftermath.

[FormerRepublican]

"I've been watching the news all day, with some people putting a lot of blame on Mayor Nagin because he didn't use school buses to evacuate people from New Orleans prior to Katrina landfall. This has bothered me, and I've done some research. Here's one thing I found:

"The following quotes are part of a report, "National Review of Hurricane Evacuation Plans and Policies," prepared by the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, which you can download here: http://www.hurricane.lsu.edu/&EvacuationReview.pdf

<snip>
"...The number of people
without access to transportation in New Or-
leans, has been estimated as high as 25 to 30
percent of the population. In addition to people
without vehicles, potential evacuees include the
indigent, elderly, prisoners, the infirm, and
tourists."

<snip>
"...Busing is the most common mode of
transportation for low mobility groups. To
transport people in busses, emergency man-
agement agencies have in the past contracted
with local transit authorities, school districts,
and tour operators, with varying levels of
success. Many heavily populated cities do not
have an adequate supply of busses to move all
low-mobility evacuees. "

<IMPORTANT SNIP>
"For example, about
250,000 residents of New Orleans (not includ-
ing tourists or special needs populations)
Low Mobility Groups and Use of Public Transit
have no means of private transportation..."

<AND HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT SNIP>
"...The
total number of busses in all of New Orleans
would provide only a fraction of the capacity
needed to transport all of these people. Thus,
Louisiana emergency management officials
plan to use any available alternative means of
transportation, including National Guard
vehicles. They also plan to open local shelters
and refuges of last resort for those not able to
evacuate.""

If buses could only hold a portion of those without transportation, then how could they be used to evacuate people? Contraflow was implemented, and traffic was so snarled that it took all day for a CNN reporter to drive from New Orleans to Biloxi - I know because I watched it on TV - so how could buses be used to transport people for evacuation when there were too many people and buses could only make one trip? In addition, I read that FEMA ordered people be evacuated to the SuperDome (not outside the city), the buses were running full time getting people to the SuperDome until Sunday night until curfew was called, and that FEMA had denied Nagin the right to use school buses to evacuate. Can you find out if this is true? How long after the storm did the levee break? How long after the levee break did the buses get flooded? With all the manpower focused on rescuing people after Katrina hit (remember, even the helicopters that were to be used to fix the levee were diverted to rescue people), was there anyone left to evacuate people? If they were to use National Guard vehicles and personnel to evacuate people, then the Iraq thing would matter because most of the LA National Guard equipment got set to Iraq with the troops. If they didn't have the equipment, then how could they evacuate? Governor Blanco couldn't mobilize troops from other states without FEMA approval, and in several instances FEMA blocked outside National Guard troops from coming in. So how could the local officials have done anything more to solve the problem?

And from the St. Petersberg Times, Bush was briefed by forecasting chief Max Mayfield on the strength of the storm on August 28th: http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/30/State/For_forecasting_chief.shtml

And FEMA delayed requesting additional help to deal with Katrina until after the storm hit land and gave people 2 days to respond: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050907/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/katrina_disaster_response

We also know that the Batan and other military were ready to go immediately after the storm, but Bush wouldn't give the guys the orders.

That basically left the local guys in the lurch until at least Wednesday.

I just can't see how local officials could have managed it without help, and I'd like to have you investigate it so we can know the truth. There's been a lot of spinning going on by the White House to try to absolve themselves from blame, but I'd really like to know the truth.

Whose fault was it that people were left stranded in the SuperDome without food and water? Obviously we need to know since there are other storms already brewing, and other parts of the nation are also subject to natural disasters; earthquakes in California, for example. We need to know NOW what needs to be fixed so what happened in New Orleans never happens again!

Thank you."

Add your voices to mine - [e-mail]. Thanks, Wordie, for the quote on buses. I hope you don't mind that I used it.