New Orleans' own comprehensive emergency plan raises the specter of "having large numbers of people … stranded" and promises "the city … will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas."
"Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves," the plan states.
When Hurricane Katrina hit, however, that plan was not followed completely.
Instead of sending city buses to evacuate those who could not make it out on their own, people in New Orleans were told to go to the Superdome and the Convention Center, where no one provided sufficient sustenance or security.
And, it turns out ABC News also asked Governor Blanco about their response to the evacuation. They responded that they never asked for evacuation assistance from the federal government as part of their interaction with FEMA, only for assistance with shelter and provisions. They assumed that the city of New Orleans had followed its own evacuation plan.
So, what does that mean? Quite frankly, it means FEMA was in the dark about the lack of Nagin following the plan. It means that FEMA could not coordinate what they did not know was not going on. In other words, as Captain's Quarters reports:
if ABC's report is correct, then the feds may not have known of the evacuation breakdown until the flood on Tuesday made it a critical situation -- and then were forced to respond by getting the correct assets in place within 72 hours for evacuation while almost all the roads and bridges were unusable. By that time, FEMA had begun to use what roadways were left open to move in the supplies and temporary shelter they had prestaged in the area. The feds would have had to quickly shift to a massive evacuation effort instead...
A very hard switch to do, indeed. Yet, I read some liberals out there saying that "FauxNews" and conservative hacks are "twisting the facts." OK, let's review a few things:
1. Joe Liberman, A Democrat, wanted to create Homeland Security, not GWB. In fact, GWB was against it, but was told to reach out to Democrats like Hillrod and Joe.
2. It was Joe Lieberman, again, who said to put FEMA under Homeland Security.
3. It was a Democratically Controlled Senate who UNANIMOUSLY voted by voice the approval of Mike Brown as FEMA head.
4. Hundreds of millions was budgeted for levee updates but were not used for fixing nad reworking hte levees.
This was not the first time that New Orleans had not adequately done an evac:
Again, from Captain's Quarters:
The fact that 600,000 residents evacuated means an equal number did not. Recent evacuation surveys show that two thirds of nonevacuees with the means to evacuate chose not to leave because they felt safe in their homes. Other nonevacuees with means relied on a cultural tradition of not leaving or were discouraged by negative experiences with past evacuations. ...
Residents who did not have personal transportation were unable to evacuate even if they wanted to. Approximately 120,000 residents (51,000 housing units x 2.4 persons/unit) do not have cars. A proposal made after the evacuation for Hurricane Georges to use public transit buses to assist in their evacuation out of the city was not implemented for Ivan. If Ivan had struck New Orleans directly it is estimated that 40-60,000 residents of the area would have perished.
That may well turn out to be the death toll for Katrina, and for the exact same reason. They had this data well ahead of the storm, and the evacuation called for the buses to roll for this exact reason. Why didn't Mayor Nagin follow the plan? Why didn't Governor Blanco do something to check her assumptions that he had?
Very good questions. Instead of falling prey to the blame Bush Game, the MSM should be asking these...and getting to the heart of the matter.
We have said it time and again. FEMA is not a first response group. It coordiantes. It can only work off the info given it by the states involved. Therefore, if a governor was inept and incompetent (Blanco), then FEMA will look the same as well, because that was the source of their info. Of course, this does not stop the fever swamp obsessed left, who smell blood in the water.
