His incompetence cost lives...
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin explains in a radio interview why he didn't use the hundreds of his city's school buses to evacuate residents:…
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Ray Nagin - Idiot - Comments Page 3
Article comments
76 - DJ
We had the same disaster scenario in our plan in the case of a natural disaster (avalanche, blizzard) at the 2002 winter olympics in SLC. The primary issue: evacuation of participants and spectators. The resolution: school buses, or, buses of any kind. The first question in the command center: "who will drive them, will we have to call in drivers?". The informed answer from the Commander: "We will drive them, heck I'll get in one of them myself if I have to, we will get those people out of there and to safe warm shelter." Too many chiefs, not enough indians. While the City & State HQ personnel were busy giving interviews and answering unnecessary phone calls, they should have been evacuating the citizens. They fell back on the Super Bowl as their "last" resort. When the national hurricane warning center states a cat 5 hurricane may hit NO two days out, you round up school buses and drive the citizens out. FEMA does not and will never have the capability to EVACUATE citizens. FEMA has never been as large an organization as the average american perceives. They are there for relief, after the fact. After Hurricane Andrew, it still took days for relief to arrive. That's what happens when Mother Nature informs the human race that she's still in charge of things like tornados, hurricanes, typhoons, mudslides, volcanos, etc. I wouldn't envy Mayor Nagin or Gov. Blancos positions in late August. But they know they could have done more. Should people have heeded the warnings and moved out on their own earlier? Should people in regions prone to hurricane activity stop the party mentality that comes with "riding out the storm"? And when it comes to large scale natural disasters is there really anything man can do to prevent them? One thing I do know, throwing money at the aftermath of this nightmare isn't the answer. The taxpayers are footing the bill for millions of dollars worth of mobile homes that will never be used? Citizens on the outskirts of NO refused to allow mobile homes temporary placement on a golf course? If the citizens in LA who were not affected by Katrina won't help their fellow citizens rebuild, why should I?
77 - Noam Trotsky
OMG read this Mayor Nagin's "New Orleans evacuation plan has a lot of holes"
"Ebbert said he wasn't particularly worried about the apparent holes in the plan, saying the city's position is that the state and federal government have to make the plan work."
They have made a worthless plan, the inevitable failure for which they will again blame the state and feds.
Nagin and Ebbert ... IDIOTS! The Abbot and Costello of city management, but saying that is an insult...to Abbot and Costello.
78 - PTB
i was living in the affected area when the hurricane struck and stayed around for an extra week after, without power or water, tidying stuff up and packing stuff to take a trip. none of this bickering and arguing helps anyone. it certainly didn't help me for you guys and officials to point fingers. complain all you want but this will probably happen again, which is why i'm moving out of new orleans. didn't you see the southpark episode "two days before the day after tomorrow"? it shows how damaging shifting blame can be. it's always someone else's fault, right?
79 - PTB
and one more thing, Nagin is the one person who tried to hold everything together, struggling against both sides of the blaming parties. it wasn't anyone's fault, and Nagin did his best. he's actually the best mayor we've had in 20 years.
80 - mezzok
how many of you are actually from new orleans? i'm reading this almost two years after the fact, and all seems to have died around this topic.....but not in our city. why don't all of you come down here and see what we're dealing with.....two years after.
guess you lot moved on to the next "happenin" political disaster and left us on our own, eh?
we've got our own toxic verbal diarrhea to deal with here, we don't need out-of-towners poking their noses in with their two cents.
unless you were here right after or even the first full year, stuck your nose in a rotten fridge, gutted out a friend's house, watched another friend's house be condemned, find out about friends who have lost relatives, then you're way off about what this is really all about: community, friendship, healing.
81 - Cooper
Those "outsiders poking their noses in" are the ones who actually pay taxes. Those of us who pay taxes are the ones who helped evacuate you. Without us taxpayers you leeches would have no money to suck on.
82 - MR SLY
IT WAS THE BEST THING THAT COULD EVER HAPPEN