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Originally Posted by maximusveritas
Yeah, you really can't compare 9/11 to this.
I was in New York on 9/11 and even though everyone was in shock, the damage was confined to a relatively small area in the city. In this case the damage is widespread throughout the Gulf region. There are plenty of other differences, but that is the big one.
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I'd say the biggest difference was the ability to plan ahead and the ineptness with which it was done.
Out side of some wild ass speculation, taking down the world trade center was a complete suprise. Guiliani and Pataki did an incredible job on a disaster that no one expected.
This isn't the first hurricane to hit the gulf coast. New Orleans is below sea level, this is a disaster that everyone knew was going to happen eventually. How many days did we all watch weather forecast that showed Katrina going through New Orleans. When did the mayor make the evacuation mandatory? What did he do to enforce it? The mayor is asking for 500 buses to evacuate people, pictures on CNN show nearly that many school buses sitting under flood waters. Maybe he should have used them? Ahead of the storm?
There is no excuse for Mayor Nagin to be unprepared for this disaster. While there is plenty of blame to go around, the burden of preparedness and evacuation was his and he blew it.