Remember this picture? It was a favorite of conservative bloggers in the days immediately after hurricane Katrina, and was used to signify the failure of state and local officials in preparing to evacuate people. Particular criticism was aimed at governor Blanco.
Well, come to find out that the federal government — via FEMA — had promised buses. But things didn’t quite go as planned. The governor wanted to use state schoolbuses. FEMA said no. But FEMA’s own buses were late in coming.
Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina raged ashore, Gov. Kathleen Blanco still wants one question answered.
Where were the buses?
Hours after the hurricane hit Aug. 29, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a plan to send 500 commercial buses into New Orleans to rescue thousands of people left stranded on highways, overpasses and in shelters, hospitals and homes.
On the day of the storm, or perhaps the day after, FEMA turned down the state’s suggestion to use school buses because they are not air conditioned, Blanco said Friday in an interview.
Even after levees broke and residents were crowding the Louisiana Superdome, then-FEMA Director Mike Brown was bent on using his own buses to evacuate New Orleans, Blanco said.
Blanco started sending in buses on Monday, when FEMA announced it was sending buses. She commandeered more buses and sent them in on Wednesday. On Wendnesday, FEMA’s buses were just entering the state.
On Wednesday, with the FEMA buses still not in sight, Blanco called the White House to talk to Bush and ended up speaking to Chief of Staff Andy Card.
“I said, ‘Even if we had 500 buses, they’ve underestimated the magnitude of this situation, and I think I need 5,000 buses, not 500,’” Blanco recounted.
“‘But, Andy, those 500 are not here,’” the governor said.
Card promised to get Blanco more buses.
Later Wednesday night, Blanco walked into the State Police Communications Center and asked if anyone knew anything about the buses.
An officer told her the buses were just entering the state.
“I said, ‘Do you mean as in North Louisiana, which is another six hours from New Orleans?,’” Blanco recalled in the interview. “He said, ‘Yes, m’am.’”
It was at that point, Blanco said, that she realized she had made a critical error.
The critical error was in assuming that anyone at FEMA — and perhaps in the Bush administration itself — knew what they were doing and cared about what was happening in Louisiana. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I guess that accounts for the 36 hours that no one did a damn thing.
Aw, give it a rest.
Both Nagin AND Blanco had the authority to use the city’s many buses and school buses to evacuate people BEFORE the hurricane.
They could have, and should havea started the evacuation Friday night (the 26th) when it was looking pretty certain that New Orleans would get hit.
They has more than 48 hours from that time until Katrina hit Monday morning, to get the people who did not have access to vehicles OUT OF HARM’S WAY!
The only good thing about a hurricane is advance warning, and 48 hours was plenty of time to get people out.
And none of that “they didn’t want to leave” crap. Of course many did not want to leave and STILL won’t leave. But many would have been very willing. So while people stood in the heat on Sunday to go into the Superdome (which Nagin had used the previous year when Hurricane Ivan threatened), they could have been boarding buses.
So while FEMA is clearly inefficient and clearly run by corrupt idiots, the most effective life-saving and cost-saving action that could have been taken was to evacuate people BEFORE Katrina hit.
Everyone in New Orleans knows that there are 80,000 to 100,000 people in metro who do not have a car nor access to one. Period. So while people packed up their pets and their childrena and their wedding pictures in the family car and got away, the people of New Orleans who had the fewest resources were abandoned – BY THE MAYOR AND THE GOVERNOR – to die in their homes and in the streets. And in the Superdome, which the governor had admitted a year earlier was not a plan.
So, blame where it is due. The mayor and governor chose not to use the buses right under their noses to save people’s lives. Why did they delay, and what use DID they make of those 48 precious hours. Sorry, but whatever the feds did, they did. Nagin and Blanco should have taken action. We all know that sometimes help comes late and sometimes it doesn’t come at all. Once the actions (or rather, non action) of Nagin and Blanco is dealt with, we can go on with what Bush and FEMA did wrong.
In the meantime, the city and state government had immediate and undeniable responsibility. If they didn’t like “the plan”, why not just be pragmatic and bus the folks out of town. More than 33,000 people could have been moved out of New Orleans in just ONE bus run. So now the buses are a loss too.
Nagin and Blanco just fed their constituents to Bush and his cronies – the billion-dollar eating machine that is about to enrich itself with ill-gotten real estate, gentrified at the expense of all of us. Plus, of course, they’ll steal the billions earmarked for the resurrection of New Orleans.
This is not about Democrats or Republicans. This is about people failing the public in shocking ways. Democrats let people die unnecessarily when they could have done something. Blood on those hands. And of course, the current Republican administration should surprise no one as it grabs as much as it can of the public money through corruption and crony-ism, fails (as has Halliburton in Iraq) to deliver the paid-for services, and then simply rapes everyone who “lost” their homes.
Why the HELL do you think they’re keeping the citizens of New Orleans out of New Orleans?
where was fema when i was driving around my no-air volvo all those years? i guess i was severely endangering myself to the point that i’d have been better off hanging out with no food or drinking water with polluted water rising around me.
- CANAL ST BUS DRIVERS EVACUATED TUESDAY –
– 170 RTA BUSES HIGH & DRY AT POLAND ST WHARF -
The Canal Street RTA Bus Yard had a ready crew of bus drivers post-Katrina. They watched the buses flood. Then evacuated to Baton Rouge.
Per 10/1/05 NOLA quote – from RTA spokesperson – Rosalind Blanco Cook –
Meanwhile… 170 buses were parked high and dry at the Poland St Wharf, just a short drive down a dry street from the French Quarter.
Per 9/12/05 NOLA – quote –
See 8/31/05 – Google Map – Poland Street Wharf – w RTA buses – NOT cargo containers – see pre & post Katrina & compare w Canal St buses.
Per – NOAA 8/31/05 – River Sector – Pics of Poland Street Wharf – w 170 RTA buses -
Row 4 – 5 from right – N is right – 24428406.jpg
Row 4 – 6 from right – N is right – 24428410.jpg
Row 4 – 7 from right – N is right – 24428415.jpg
For visual comparison – See Canal Street Buses – Row 3 – 14 from right – North is Left – 24427963.jpg – middle of pic -
See – Google Map – of Canal Street Bus Yard –
2817 Canal St, New Orleans, LA –
Feel free to copy, edit and re-post.