The City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan clearly states, “The City of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas,” and “Transportation will be provided to those persons requiring public transportation from the area.” Part II, Section B, paragraph 5 of the Louisiana Emergency Operations Plan (supplement 1A) states, “School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles, and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.”
The 13-hour drive piloted by first-time bus driver Jabar Gibson, 20, began Wednesday as trapped New Orleans residents came to the conclusion they could expect no help from the slow developing rescue efforts in the city. Gibson said police in New Orleans told him and others to take the school bus and try to get out of the flooded city.
Jay Tea adds: It must be noted that these buses once represented assets, when they could have helped save literally tens of thousands of people from the flooding. Now they are worse than useless, they’are actually liabilities. They are now just tons and tons of useless scrap, dumping lord knows how many thousands of gallons of fuel, oil, and other hazardous chemicals into the already-dangerous-enough soup that is drowning New Orleans.
(Hat tip to Junkyard Blog)
I don’t have much to say about the topic in particular… but someone should give that guy a medal.
Amen to that. Charles Johnson at LGF has renamed the flooded bus depot “The Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool”.
This guy should be appointed Mayor of New Orleans. At least he knew what “evacuation” meant and how to do it.
Maybe they should elect him mayor.
I’ve been watching the Sunday news programs and the Bush whackers are crawling out of their hiding places like snakes out of a flooded Louisiana swamp. The left is pulling out all stops to permanently damage president Bush and set up a 2006 election victory, and of course they are being helped along by the MSM not showing pictures and raising questions like Wizbang and other blogs are doing.
Mac Lorry is on the money:
The Sunday AM news shows are having a field day with the feeding frenzy. The President is taking a verbal beating and being blamed for everything under the sun.
Noone, as in noone, is directing any responsibilities to the local or state governments. “A good defense is your best offense”…and the deflections of blame have never been greater. It’s repulsive.
But the ugly fact is…this is how politicos work. And when an opportunity arises to further stomp on your opponents head, the water soon runs red with blood.
A bigger problem is emerging from the Katrina Disaster however: I am seeing a rapidly growing ground swell of racial discontent. This is fertile territory for those individuals whose very existence become justified while breathing the air of fear,uncertainty and confusion. I suspect that Katrina will be the cause celebre’ (read excuse) for a whole (not-so-new) can of worms.
Incidentally, Jabbar Gibson is the real deal…he can think on his feet and react bravely in the face of disaster. I hope he catches a break out of all of this.
Over at protein wisdom he linked to a liberal blog that claimed they had received an e-mail that Jabbar Gibson was going to be arrested by authorities for stealing the bus (and used that to call all conservatives racists). I searched Google news and so far it looks like that’s B.S.
But in times like this I don’t even understand why we are concerned about people taking TVs and VCRs. Maybe after the humanitarioan crisis is over the national guard can put a stop to that, but until then isn’t it orthogonal to what’s important? If looters are armed and such then we should deal with them, but why bother with the ones taking TVs and VCRs?
Not only does the New Orleans Emergency Management Plan call for using buses to evacuate people who couldn’t otherwise evacuate, but so does the state plan. Given that I would like to know why the inormation that New Orleans provides to the public states this:
– Tune to Emergency Alerting System 870 AM or 101.9 FM radio stations for reports about evacuation routes, conditions, etc. Use those travel routes specified.
– Drive safely. Traffic will be heavy. Law enforcement officials along the route will help with traffic.
– If you need a ride, try to go with a neighbor, friend, or relative.
http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=3
I posted this on my blog:
On Sunday, August 28 New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared a state of emergency Sunday and ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city. Some say he should have done it sooner, but I’ll leave that specualtion alone till I get more facts.
The City of New Orleans evacuation plan consists of three phases.
1. PRECAUTIONARY
2. RECOMMENDED
3. MANDATORY
Consider this. The MANDATORY evacuation – the final Phase – was announced on Sunday.
Now let us go back to Phase 2:
2. RECOMMENDED
During the Recommended Phase of Evacuation:
1. The City of New Orleans Emergency Operating Center (EOC) is staffed for 24-hour operation.
2. Local transportation will be mobilized to assist persons who lack transportation.
3. Bus routes and locations of staging areas for those needing transportation to shelters in or out of the Parish, will be announced via radio and television.
4. Relatives and neighbors should help family and friends who need transportation and other assistance.
QUESTION: Why are those buses still sitting there?
Ya’ thinks Nagin doth protest too much?
My point exactly Jeff.
I wish the kid had driven the bus to Atlanta, I would be offering him a job.
Nagin wanted GREYHOUND buses; the school buses weren’t fancy enough, apparently.
Starvation, assaults, life threatening conditions of all sorts…a bus is a bus is a bus. Except to Mayor Nagin, who was more concerned about cloth seats and air conditioning.
Awful….a Coast Guard helicopter just crashed in New Orleans.
Thank God, crew was rescued, all are alive.
Those buses might not be a total waste, there’s a good chance they can be used to rebuild or reinforce the levees. If they weren’t good enough to use for evacuation the last time they evacuated they might as well be used for that, they are in a lot worse shape now. Might as well save a couple for tombstones to mark the death of Blanco’s and Nagin’s political careers and sink the rest.
“But in times like this I don’t even understand why we are concerned about people taking TVs and VCRs. Maybe after the humanitarian crisis is over the national guard can put a stop to that, but until then isn’t it orthogonal to what’s important? If looters are armed and such then we should deal with them, but why bother with the ones taking TVs and VCRs?”
Because the looters aren’t just bothering with the stores, but with private citizens, and even with the children’s hospital. (That was a nasty little news item to read.) The reason we stop looting is that if we don’t, the looters assume that a free-for-all has been declared, and will often escalate to things such as, I don’t know, shooting sniper rifles at rescue helicopters.
Because they can.
So stopping looters *is* part of solving the ongoing humanitarian crisis, because, unfortunately, the best and brightest (as demonstrated by the bright young man above) have largely left the city, and those who are left have a disproportionate number of lawless… and of those who are unable to defend themselves (the sick and the infirm.)
This trajedy hits me so deeply because I live in a coastal area too. I’ve seen working class people where I live (Outer Banks, NC) who couldn’t evacuate under manditory evacuations either. I’ve seen tourist allowed to stay under manditory evacuations for no better reason than they paid a weeks cottage rent that nobody wanted to refund.
I’ve seen plenty of mandatory evacuations. I’ve never seen busses, public or privately owned, used to evacuate people who wanted to get out of harms way but couldn’t. In fact, when Isabel was a category 5 and headed for us, I tried to get a private bus line to evacuate international student workers. They were terrified, wanted to leave but couldn’t. The bus line declined saying it was an insurance nightmare and could turn out to be an inconvenience if the students didn’t want to return when the bus owner was re-entering. Isabel was downgraded to a level 3 when she was very close to land fall. Because the surge built up under category 5 winds, we had something like a category 3 winds with a category 5 storm surge. Not a lot of wind damage, but tons of water damage. The Katrina catastrophe was a tragedy that could easily have happened to me, my friends and my neighbors. My local government is just as “Dumb or Dumber”.
Some coastal residents would be soft hearted and say Ray Nagin made mistakes that any coastal mayor could have made. I think there should be a hugely public trial. Whatever the outcome, it should send a message to every coastal mayor and every coastal political candidate. We owe it to the Katrina victims and survivors to put an end to coastal evacuation risk taking.
“I don’t have much to say about the topic in particular… but someone should give that guy a medal.
Posted by: rdz809 at September 4, 2005 05:21 AM “
– – – – – – – –
What a great idea! 😀
Petition to honor Jabbar Gibson
http://www.petitiononline.com/JG0007Q/petition.html
“We have been extraordinarily moved by the story of Jabbar Gibson, and the initiative he displayed in commandeering a bus to drive Hurricane Katrina victims out of New Orleans. We were very alarmed to hear that he was at one time in danger of prosecution. Mr. Gibson declared to the news media, “I don’t care if I get blamed for it, as long as I saved my people.” But WE care if he gets blamed for it.”
[snip]
” We request that this young man be awarded appropriately with a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a full four-year scholarship to the college of his choice. For we truly believe that Jabbar Gibson as an individual, exemplified the courage and the spirit that is the best part of America and in so doing became emblematic of the actions many others who responded bravely and selflessly in the face of this disaster. He is someone we should support, encourage, and see prosper in this great nation. Jabbar Gibson and those like him are the future of America!”
Check out a site dedicated to the absurdity and satire nature of saying “It’s All George Bush’s Fault!”
http://www.itsallgeorgebushsfault.com
Regards,
Notta Libb