This
bus thing just keeps getting worse -- there were 255 school buses and 364 city transit buses. Even if they'd only had drivers for half that many, they could have gotten *thousands* of people out before Katrina hit. The city of New Orleans "emergency plan" says they're supposed to use those buses for evacuation. But nope. They're just sitting there -- totally ruined *and* polluting the water further.
The more I hear about the mayor (and local government) of New Orleans the less impressed I get. He should have started evacuating last Saturday -- and the only reason he ordered an evacuation on Sunday is because President Bush asked him to.
From what I can see, the logic there was "well, lots of people can't get out, so why bother telling them to?" Given all those buses, that's just a reprehensible attitude.
I know the medical people, National Guard, Coast Guard, etc, etc, are doing a heroic job, and I am deeply respectful of that. But it sure looks like the ones whose job it was to be prepared for an entirely predictable disaster have
utterly failed them.
Oh, and on a random semi-related note, about the helicopters -- you know all those video shots of people stuck on rooftops, where the helicopter apparently just takes pictures and flies away? If I were one of those people who'd rather be rescued than seen on TV, I'd be incredibly ticked at those 'copters. But then it occurred to me that media choppers probably wouldn't have the capacity to rescue anyone -- they certainly wouldn't have that nifty basket on a winch arrangement. So that makes it a *little* better. Still seems cruel to get people's hopes up and then just fly away, though. I'll just hope they were recording locations and passing them along to people who *would* be able to perform rescues.
PJ
