Excellent points made in another forum about why the School Buses were irrelavent...
The school buses are IRRELEVANT. Here's why.
Let's think this through...
Suppose, just because we're in right-wing fantasyland here, that the city of New Orleans had managed to load ALL its poor, disabled, and frail elderly onto school buses, city buses, horse-drawn carriages, motorcycle sidecars, or any other combination of vehicles.
Then what?
Because "Then what?" is the relevant question, NOT the number of school buses.
Imagine a convoy of poor, disabled, and elderly people streaming out of New Orleans.
Where do they go?
Can the mayor order that they just be dumped off in the nearest unaffected town? All 100,000 of them? Or maybe 1,000 in each of the unaffected towns along the Interstate? Right, just what every town wants. One thousand people showing up unannounced. One thousand people with no money showing up unannounced.
Should they be dropped off one by one as soon as there are motels with "No Vacancy" signs? (Never mind that motels were booked solid for some incredible number of miles around.) Ooookaaaay, but how do they pay for their motel bills? What do they eat?
Should those who have relatives out of the storm area be allowed to go to those relatives? Not a bad idea for those who have relatives--but who pays their way there?
Do you see what I'm getting at?
If you argue with right-wingers about how many buses there were, you're missing the point. The Republicanite strategists know that spreading the talking point about the buses will get everyone into fruitless arguments about how many buses there were and take the focus off FEMA's lack of regional coordination for the widely foretold inundation of New Orleans.
The mayor of New Orleans had no authority to dump evacuees on other towns. The other towns were unprepared to take them, and those in Mississippi had their own displaced persons.
This is why disaster relief plans for large cities need to be on a regional basis, because most of them have a sphere of influence that extends beyond state borders.
The disaster plan for New Orleans should have included stockpiling survival supplies in public buildings every community out of the flood zone, determining how many evacuees each community could absorb, and designating someone in that community to manage disaster relief.
On the New Orleans side, there should have been a "block captain" on every block whose job it was to find out who had a car, who had financial resources to evacuate independently, and who would be willing to give a ride to a neighbor. The block captain would have reported back to regional FEMA headquarters how many people would need transportation out of the city and how many would need subsidized shelter. The block captain would also designate a deputy, who would take over if the block captain was killed or injured in the disaster.
FEMA would then decide how many buses would be needed to transport the non-mobile and where the displaced from each neighborhood would be sent. If possible, people from the same neighborhood would be kept together.
That's what should have been done.
Because it wasn't done, it doesn't matter whether there were 200 school buses or 200 thousand.
The fact remains that 100,000 people had nowhere to go and no way to support themselves, even if they did evacuate.
Dan your reasoning is flawed in many ways. What is better for an elderly or otherwise immoble person, being dropped off at a small town with no food or water, or sitting in their home as the water rises to the top of the roof and they have no food or water in the middle of a class 5 hurricane?
Which is better Dan?
Last edited by Useruser666; 09-10-2005 at 12:03 AM.
Leave him. He's desperately grasping for straws.
No, the alternatives would have been dropping the poor and homeless off in small towns along the way, and letting them take care of them or shove them all in the Superdome. FEMA, advising local and State authorities, choose the second route.Dan your reasoning is flawed in many ways. What is better for an elderly or otherwise immoble person, being dropped off at a small town with no food or water, or sitting in their home as the water rises to the top of the roof and they have no food or water in the middle of a class 5 hurricane?
Which is better Dan?
Umm...no. When it comes down to it, even using the buses would have require mega-doses of regional coordination. Which means that this should have been a local-state-and FED responsibility. You keep trying to blame the little guy with no resources while ignoring the big, rich elephant in the room.
Good thing Bush still has his straw from his collage coke days.
You know, one thing I find common among most Republicans I meet is a lack of any real empathy for the little guy. It's always the little guys fault. So what if the FEDS have 100x's the resources and military coordination already at hand that a city Mayor or even a Governor can only dream of having? So what if the President was satified in letting FEMA play an advisory role to State and Local officials?
RACK^^^
I drove from Louisana Downs to SA on Sunday the day before Katrina hit, at 15-45 MPH starting at 3 in the afternoon on IH 10 with the bumper to bumper traffic. I even took highway 90 in Gulfport to get out of the traffic on 1-10. I saw no one buming a ride. I also did not see one single bus.
Sorry Dan, but on the bus issue, Nagin takes the hit.
than lets Slap Blanco
Tell Bush to wake up
and lets put Mr Brown next to some dead bodies and let him stand
in the toxic soup, until all the Skitters in LA are no longer thirsty.
Last edited by AFE7FATMAN; 09-10-2005 at 03:55 AM.
There is stuff Nagin could take a hit for, like not organizing block captains to ensure a more orderly emergency evacuation, and not pressing State and Federal officials to lengthen the Levees much sooner, however, the buses aren't likely to hurt him because using them would have required regional coordination and FED resources, neither of which were under the discretion of the Mayor or the Governor.Sorry Dan, but on the bus issue, Nagin takes the hit.
..and school buses are not air conditioned nor do they have bathrooms. Besides, it's not like city buses weren't used to ferry people without transportation to the SuperDome...
Buses were used to PU people at 12 locations:
Buses were used to pick up people at 12 locations - Prior to storm
Edited on Fri Sep-09-05 04:59 AM by DoYouEverWonder
Sunday, August 28, 2005
What I wanna know is, why wasn't there a caravan of FEMA confiscated commercial buses heading in and out of NO before the storm?Around 112,000 Orleanians do not own cars, according to census data. Nagin urged those people to seek rides with friends, family, neighbors and church members. Those who could not find rides were urged to get to the Superdome as quickly as possible.
Regional Transit Authority buses were scheduled to ferry people to the dome from 12 locations around the city beginning at noon today.
Meantime, to make sure word of the mandatory evacuation gets out, Nagin said that police and fire crews would be driving through neighborhoods Sunday with bullhorns, directing people to leave.
The evacuation order contained exemptions for certain people, including city, state and federal officials, inmates of the parish prison, those in hospitals, tourists staying in hotels and members of the media.
NOLA
An emergency order Nagin announced Sunday in declaring the mandatory evacuation gives authorities the right to commandeer private buildings and vehicles — including boats — as they see fit.
The mayor did not say which buildings might be seized for public use. For the time being, the Superdome will be used as a “shelter of last resort” for those unable to evacuate the city. If the dome fills to capacity, other buildings could be appropriated, Nagin said.
Nagin said the dome’s availability to residents doesn’t mean that going there is a good idea.
Nagin didn't ask for them. There were several Buses at the Casinos.
Yeah dan, we wouldn't have wanted to ferry the people out to save lives in busses withoug AC or bathrooms.
Look at Gurwitz trying to sell this bus crap again in the opt section of the local fishwrap. What a moran. (inside joke)
Much rather have them crapping on each other and sleeping in feces and urine on the floor of the un-air conditioned Superdome concourses.Yeah dan, we wouldn't have wanted to ferry the people out to save lives in busses withoug AC or bathrooms.
Do those people who were left in their flooded out homes have bathrooms and a/c?
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