New Orleans Mayor: God Wants City To Be Mostly Black

[Audrey2Katrina]

they do not have to wait until the NHC track indicates a landfall to order an evacuation, that is 100% false. Evacuations can be ordered, even mandatory at any time. Fire Island NY was evacuated for Emily in 1993, even though a watch was not even issued and Corpus Christi evacuated for Rita, when the landfall location was in Houston, again ordered well before a watch.

Oh, but man the flack Aaron Broussard took last year when he issued the evac order for Jefferson Parish during Dennis. hmmmmmmm

LOL... not half the flack he's catching now for not having kept pump operators that might have saved EJ half a billion alone in unnecessary flooding due to inoperative pumps. The firemen stayed, the police stayed, and the pump operators WANTED to remain (in EJ hospital), but Broussard, the tear-filled prevaricator on Meet the Press, felt otherwise; and now he's facing a strong recall petition.

A2K

[sunny]

they do not have to wait until the NHC track indicates a landfall to order an evacuation, that is 100% false. Evacuations can be ordered, even mandatory at any time. Fire Island NY was evacuated for Emily in 1993, even though a watch was not even issued and Corpus Christi evacuated for Rita, when the landfall location was in Houston, again ordered well before a watch.

Oh, but man the flack Aaron Broussard took last year when he issued the evac order for Jefferson Parish during Dennis. hmmmmmmm

LOL... not half the flack he's catching now for not having kept pump operators that might have saved EJ half a billion alone in unnecessary flooding due to inoperative pumps. The firemen stayed, the police stayed, and the pump operators WANTED to remain (in EJ hospital), but Broussard, the tear-filled prevaricator on Meet the Press, felt otherwise; and now he's facing a strong recall petition.

A2K

Yes, I know. I live in Jefferson Parish.

[LaPlaceFF]

LOL... not half the flack he's catching now for not having kept pump operators that might have saved EJ half a billion alone in unnecessary flooding due to inoperative pumps. The firemen stayed, the police stayed, and the pump operators WANTED to remain (in EJ hospital), but Broussard, the tear-filled prevaricator on Meet the Press, felt otherwise; and now he's facing a strong recall petition.

A2K

He cried on Meet The Press? Did the pump operators wanted to stay? Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

[sunny]

LOL... not half the flack he's catching now for not having kept pump operators that might have saved EJ half a billion alone in unnecessary flooding due to inoperative pumps. The firemen stayed, the police stayed, and the pump operators WANTED to remain (in EJ hospital), but Broussard, the tear-filled prevaricator on Meet the Press, felt otherwise; and now he's facing a strong recall petition.

A2K

He cried on Meet The Press? Did the pump operators wanted to stay? Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

He did, and he lied through his teeth too. Yes, the pump operators wanted to stay - he ordered them to Washington Parish.

[Audrey2Katrina]

He did, and he lied through his teeth too. Yes, the pump operators wanted to stay - he ordered them to Washington Parish.

Yup... absolutely... he lied about the calls from a woman day to day who was already deceased, and Russert never called him to task on it later. And YES, the operators wanted to stay--one is a good friend of mine, his wife is a colleague at my school, and they were forced out of the parish.

A2K

[HurryKane]

Ya know...it was a stressful time, truely. And I'm sure many local government heads were bombarded with all kinds of issues as the storm approached and first passed over.

But I'm just flabbergasted at how many of these elected officials made decisions that would appear hurtful to residents when they were first made, even before these decisions were torn apart in hindsight. The pump operators, not letting people cross over a bridge, not making full use of buses available, etc.

I just don't understand it. In their position I'd want to protect as many people as possible and damn the laws if they stood in my way. Is there a head-shaking emoticon?

[Pearl River]

Under LA Rev. Statute 29:727- The Parish President's aka County Managers for you non-Louisiana types, have the authority to issue evacuation orders. This includes the Mayor of N.O., since Orleans Parish is the city.

The following is from the Sunday morning Aug 28th N.O. Times-Picayune-

On Saturday at 7 p.m., the Hurricane Center placed the storm 360 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, with winds of 115 mph. The forecast projected the storm sweeping directly over the city.

The Hurricane Center posted a hurricane warning from Morgan City to the Alabmama-Florida line.

President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, authorizing federal emergency management officials to release federal aid and coordinate disaster relief efforts.

By mid-afternoon, officials in Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, Lafourche, Terrebonne and Jefferson parishes had called for voluntary or mandatory evacuations.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin followed at 5 p.m., issuing a voluntary evacuation.

Nagin said late Saturday that he's having his legal staff look into whether he can order a mandatory evacuation of the city, a step he's been hesitant to do because of potential liability on the part of the city for closing hotels and other businesses.

"Come the first break of light in the morning, you may have the first mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," Nagin told WWL-TV.

St. Tammany officials ordered evacuations of the parish's low-lying areas by today at noon.

[LaPlaceFF]

Nagin said late Saturday that he's having his legal staff look into whether he can order a mandatory evacuation of the city, a step he's been hesitant to do because of potential liability on the part of the city for closing hotels and other businesses.

So he was afraid to order a mandatory evacuation because if the storm would've turned away, the city would get sued for lost revenue from businesses.

It is those kind of decisions that drive emergency managers nuts. If not IF then WHEN to order an evac. I wonder how other areas of the coast dealt with evacs.

[Margie]

"Nagin said late Saturday that he's having his legal staff look into whether he can order a mandatory evacuation of the city, a step he's been hesitant to do because of potential liability on the part of the city for closing hotels and other businesses."

Sounds like blowing smoke to me. How about he didn't have the plan in place to do it, and the liability he was worried about was his liability to not get everyone out, once he started, and not even having a plan for a place to take them. So much safer for him to wait until it was too late to do anything but have them go to a local shelter. Of course one can only hope that he eventually will be held liable for stranding, and then blockading them there without water, food, medical assistance, security, information, access to communication, protection from the extremely high heat and humidity, even clean toilet facilities. Basically, that was his plan.

[Pearl River]

Margie wrote

Of course one can only hope that he eventually will be held liable for stranding, and then blockading them there without water, food, medical assistance, security, information, access to communication, protection from the extremely high heat and humidity, even clean toilet facilities. Basically, that was his plan.

First of all he did not blockade them there. Everyone was told to take at least 3 days of clothes and food when they evacuated. No access to communication. Gee, the phones were out. Heat and humidity. No electricity, no air conditioning. No security? There were N.O.P.D officers there and then the Nat'l Guard. The reports of rapes and murders was found to be lies. There was only one rape reported.

Yes, the conditions were definitely not the greatest, but voluntary evacuations were underway since Saturday. His responsibility to make sure peoples that were moved were the sick and elderly. He and Blanco blew that. He wanted to know what to do with the people who were stranded in the hotels. Thats what was meant by closing the hotels.

The airlines did not want to fly into N.O. to help remove people. AMTRAK would only have taken people as far as Hammond, LA, 50 miles from N.O. and there was no place for them to stay in Hammond.

[Margie]

"He wanted to know what to do with the people who were stranded in the hotels."

You don't know what happened there either?

The hotels paid to have buses come and take away their patrons to other hotels. When the buses came to town, Nagin, who was still sitting on his rear with no plan in place, saw the buses, hijacked the buses, didn't pay the hotels, and so the hotels said to the guests, we have shut down and since your buses are no longer there you'll have to go to the shelter with all the others, we have no way now to transport you.

Another brilliant move by Nagin.

Actually -- he should be kept in office just for entertainment value. Every time you think he can't be more inept, he'll top everything he's done previously. It could become one of those reality shows, a sort of Peter Principle taken to extremes.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Margie wrote:
Of course one can only hope that he eventually will be held liable for stranding, and then blockading them there without water, food, medical assistance, security, information, access to communication, protection from the extremely high heat and humidity, even clean toilet facilities. Basically, that was his plan.

So tell me, does this mean it was "his plan"--to strand people, then blockade them, without food and water" ?

Personally I find it inconceivable that Nagin was sitting around in his mayoral office that Saturday and pondering a scheme to "strand" countless thousands who just didn't have the good sense to leave when they already KNEW a major storm was on the way.

This smacks of the kind of mentality that would accuse the military of having blown up the levees just so they could flood out the black neighborhoods. (Of course nevermind that some of the most affluent areas of the city which were predominantly white in a 70% majority black city, suffered some of the worst flooding)

What about "Personal RESPONSIBILITY". Those people were told as both I and PR have cited, to bring sleeping bags, supplies, food and water for "several days" that the dome could NOT accomodate all their needs and FOREWARNED that it would NOT be very comfortable there. The fact remains that untold THOUSANDS CHOSE to stay and no one is responsible for THEIR inaction/choices but they themselves.

Everyone I've seen/heard seems to acknowledge that a MUCH better plan should have been in place to meet the needs of the infirm, the elderly, and otherwise incapacitated to make provision for evacuation--but all this finger pointing at Nagin as guilty of everything but the assassination of Lincoln is a bit of a stretch. The man made a lot of mistakes; but one of them WAS NOT a deliberate "plan" to get people stranded, then keep them trapped through some sort of perceived "blockade" and then relish in watching their anguish through starvation and water deprivation.

A2K

[Pearl River]

Margie wrote

The hotels paid to have buses come and take away their patrons to other hotels. When the buses came to town, Nagin, who was still sitting on his rear with no plan in place, saw the buses, hijacked the buses, didn't pay the hotels, and so the hotels said to the guests, we have shut down and since your buses are no longer there you'll have to go to the shelter with all the others, we have no way now to transport you.

Apparently you don't know either. He didn't hijack the buses and if he did where did he send them to? No hotels shut down, the hotels stayed open so the people who were there could evacuate to higher floors if needed. As a matter of fact, the only buses "hijacked" were from the dome to remove people from the hotels.

[bvigal]

You know what's really beginning to worry me? It looks like the aftermath of last year's storms will be judged in courtrooms, setting precident for how emergency response is planned and carried out in future, which will make things even more screwed up! If the U.S. doesn't pass some tort reform soon, the whole country is going down the tubes.

We plan response to medical emergencies on 'worst-case' scenario, which is "what if they are Americans?" (translation: if they are, they will surely SUE US!) World-wide, Americans are the laughing stock of every discussion about bad things happening, because they refuse to accept it, insisting upon blaming someone else and making them pay via the court system.

Believe me, if you think it was bad when Nagin was trying to figure out the ramifications of mandatory evacs, based upon the LATEST legal precident (translation: forget planning, the picture changes every day!), wait till you see what gets built in to plans for ALL areas in US this year! Response time and protocol to save lives will put more people at risk to satisfy officials they are incurring the least LEGAL RISK.

Shame on America! Write your U.S. Congressmen and Senators and tell them to pass tort reform, or else NEVER vote for another attorney for political office!!!

[bvigal]

Furthermore, do you realize that for every SINGLE THING you buy, easily 1/3 to 1/2 of the cost is to cover some form of LIABILITY, be it product, transportation, etc? ALL AMERICANS are wasting easily 1/3 of their income on indirect, hidden costs of having judges legislating from the bench, one lawyer for every 15 people, ACLU on the rampage against small government and schools, and a national capital run by a monster legal machine.

[artist]

bravo bvi!

[bvigal]

Thank you. I have taken my own advice, and just written 2 Congressmen and 2 Senators. I suggest everyone here do the same.

[CentralFlGal]

As a result of the spotlight on New Orleans (at the expense of other hard-hit areas), my family will be withholding our vacation dollars from New Orleans until the current leadership is gone. Two colleagues are doing the same as well, and I can't imagine that we're the only ones.

[MiamiensisWx]

I agree, CentralFlGal! Also, excellent points, bvigal!

[Pearl River]

CentralFlGal wrote

As a result of the spotlight on New Orleans (at the expense of other hard-hit areas), my family will be withholding our vacation dollars from New Orleans until the current leadership is gone. Two colleagues are doing the same as well, and I can't imagine that we're the only ones.

I live Slidell and as much as I hate seeing and hearing about N.O., it's not the citizens of N.O. fault. Blame it all on the media because they are the ones who are leaving the other devestated areas out of the news. So if everybody decides not to come to N.O. and spend money to help the small business people here, then you can guarantee there will be no N.O. to visit when things do get better.

My father and several friends and family have lost everything they own in Slidell due to Katrina. Slidell gets no mention in the news and the city is 30 miles from N.O. But is that the fault of those who are in N.O. trying to rebuild their lives? NO. You can blame the politicians all you want, but don't let those who are trying really hard to get their lives back in order suffer.