Recurve wrote:Here's what I think should have happened on Saturday:
"Hello, mayor. This is FEMA. We realize thousands of residents there don't have the means or transportation or shelter with which to evacuate--and obviously you can't expect the city's school bus drivers to go to work to implement a mass evacuation to unknown desitnations when they're trying to save their own lives and families-- so we're opening shelters in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Houston, Dallas, and other places. Our first buses will arrive at I-10 and Florida Avenue, the Superdome, St. Bernard Parish and Lakeview at 3 p.m. and we'll continue sending buses and troop transports until 12 hours before the storm arrives. All you have to do is evacuate your staff and vital emergency workers to the command center we are setting up in La Place. We've commandeered a cruise ship and will board tourists and city workers at Riverwalk so no one's left in the French Quarter. Is there anything else we can do? Oh yes, we also anticipate levee breaks, so we're staging barges loaded with sand bags and repair crews in the Mississippi north of Baton Rouge. They'll be able to go downriver in less than 6 hours after the storm. We're also sending several hundred FEMA officials there, they'll be trained to drive buses and other vital vehicles out of the city, we've organized an evacuation plan so the equipment and personnel are sent to the north and west. Gas tanker trucks are being dispatched for refueling upstream of the evacuation. Our courier will be arriving at your office in the next 15 minutes with 3 dozen satellite phones. Give us a call when he gets there. Oh, and we're sending 500 marines who will be self- sufficient and prepared to assist in the evacuation and stay to guard the city immediately following the storm. Is there anything else you can think of? Good luck."
Hindsight is wonderful but if you were under the pressure that officials were...what would you really have done that day??????
