So you think they've got your back.....

Subject: Re: So you think they've got your back..... Thu May 22, 2014 12:36 pm

Here is a partial transcript of the interview:

Quote :: The mayor, questioned by NBC's Tim Russert on "Meet the Press," claimed he could not find drivers for the metro and school buses, which were left to flood in the post-hurricane deluge.

"Sure, here was lots of buses out there," Nagin said. "But guess what? You can't find drivers that would stay behind with a Category 5 hurricane, you know, pending down on New Orleans. We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome. We barely had enough drivers for that. So sure, we had the assets, but the drivers just weren't available."

Russert did not let up on the question, continuing into this exchange:

RUSSERT: But, Mr. Mayor, if you read the city of New Orleans' comprehensive emergency plan-- and I've read it and I'll show it to you and our viewers--it says very clearly, "Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the mayor of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life-saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedure as needed. Approximately 100,000 citizens of New Orleans do not have means of personal transportation."

It was your responsibility. Where was the planning? Where was the preparation? Where was the execution?

Guest

Eric wrote:

Here is a partial transcript of the interview:

Quote :: The mayor, questioned by NBC's Tim Russert on "Meet the Press," claimed he could not find drivers for the metro and school buses, which were left to flood in the post-hurricane deluge.

"Sure, here was lots of buses out there," Nagin said. "But guess what? You can't find drivers that would stay behind with a Category 5 hurricane, you know, pending down on New Orleans. We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome. We barely had enough drivers for that. So sure, we had the assets, but the drivers just weren't available."

Russert did not let up on the question, continuing into this exchange:

RUSSERT: But, Mr. Mayor, if you read the city of New Orleans' comprehensive emergency plan-- and I've read it and I'll show it to you and our viewers--it says very clearly, "Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the mayor of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life-saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedure as needed. Approximately 100,000 citizens of New Orleans do not have means of personal transportation."

It was your responsibility. Where was the planning? Where was the preparation? Where was the execution?

Tim Russert or whoever can blame it on the mayor of New Orleans just like nearly every rightwinger in America did after the storm, and there's no doubt that Nagan was partly to blame. However, what the above interview tells me is just what I've been saying all along, that there was not adequate transportation to evacuate the citizens of New Orleans who stayed in town. I didn't know there were 100,000 of them without personal transportation at that time, but if there were it would have taken a Herculean effort to get them all to safety. It doesn't surprise me that the bus drivers weren't willing to stay until the last moment to help evacuate. I'm sure many of them had families of their own to attend to. Not just anybody can get behind the wheel of a bus and drive it without any training, so the buses would be useless without drivers.
All that says to me is that the people that stayed weren't responsible for not being able to get out of town because they had no way to accomplish it. That's been my point all along.
As far as Bush's non-involvement in the situation prior to and after the storm, Yes, I believe he could have done much more. There was more than one guilty party in what happened in New Orleans but the guilty parties were not the people who were trapped in the city. Bush could have nationalized the guard much earlier and used them to help evacuate just as Nagan could have made better preparations. The people who weren't responsible for being stuck there were the ones we saw on TV.

Subject: Re: So you think they've got your back..... Sat May 24, 2014 7:55 pm

The Governor refused ALL federal help from Bush before and a few days after the storm. PERIOD. After a few days, my coworkers from NAS were allowed to go in to help with the injured people, but had to leave before sunset. That was orders from the Governor...

Guest

Jake92 wrote:: The Governor refused ALL federal help from Bush before and a few days after the storm. PERIOD. After a few days, my coworkers from NAS were allowed to go in to help with the injured people, but had to leave before sunset. That was orders from the Governor...

Jake, I don't know why your coworkers were not allowed to help during the emergency, but it's just a fact that on August 26 both Blanco and the Bush Administration declared a state of emergency and that was a day before the storm.
The rumors that Blanco didn't ask for help just weren't true.

I know we disagree on this but there are newspaper links to prove it. I can't do anymore than to provide the links. If you don't believe them because of your personal experiences, I don't know what else to say.

Here's another link to the complete timeline of events. There's just no reason I can think of that all the news sources should be lying:
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/hurricanekatrinatimeline.html

Subject: Re: So you think they've got your back..... Mon May 26, 2014 10:18 pm

WHY were the trucks stopped at the border and tons of ice melted??? WHO stopped the trucks?? Why were the Coast Guard and Navy ships refused entry into Louisiana state waters?? It sure wasn't Bush..... What reason would my dr, nurse, and corpsman co-workers have to lie about not being allowed to enter Louisiana??
Very easy, the Democrats control the media and will do ANYTHING including lies to make the Republicans look bad. PERIOD... END of discussion..

Posts : 3139 Join date : 2013-08-07

Jake92 wrote:: The Governor refused ALL federal help from Bush before and a few days after the storm. PERIOD. After a few days, my coworkers from NAS were allowed to go in to help with the injured people, but had to leave before sunset. That was orders from the Governor...

Perhaps now...explains why she's the EX-Governor of Louisiana....Doesn't matter how many times it's pointed out that there was enough blame to go around at All levels of government there will always be some that have tunnel vision and will continue to blame Bush....why?....Because some of these people have had it pounded in their heads that the federal government will take care of them and all the problems even if they make the decision to not evacuate and take their chances...

After the storm and the political spewing started to calm there was more than enough evidence to show failures all the way around from as pointed out prior to the storm even hitting but there were TONS of excuses as to why the people couldn't be evacuated even though there were buses available etc.,....for the local and state leaders there were no responsibilities and accountability and they failed their citizens before...during...and after the storm...

Now there's an ex-governor, ex-mayor (indicted) so maybe a lesson was learned and when another storm threatens and or hits...the new local and state officials will react as leaders rather than the fools before them did not...Living on the Gulf Coast and especially in N.O. residents should be prepared....but it has been and will always be easier to blame Bush....

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