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Originally Posted by texxasco
The fact is every person that would have made it out of there would have been an improvement over the way things actually transpired. It is also fact that the man NEVER EVEN MADE AN ETTEMPT to get anybody out who wasn't able to get out on their own. And, to add insult to injury, THERE WASN'T EVEN ANY CONTINGENCY PLAN to do so either!
I take issue with the amount of time the man had, and the amount of resource he had available but like you say it is, and will be open for debate for a long time to come.
I had no real scenario to speak of. I was merely pointing out that he could have done something, and gotten thousands out had he wanted to do so. I realize that not everyone would have left even if they had been afforded the opportunity. But You and I, as well as everybody else knows that there could have been lives saved, countless lives that DID NOT have to end because of his failure to act. The man DIDN'T HAVE THE BALLS or INTELLIGENCE to do any more than he did...and that amounted to nothing. Yet, once the shit hit the fan, what does Mayor Ray Nagin do? He blows up, and then points the finger at others for THEIR slow response. Well isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?
Put away your calculator for a minute and just look over the 3-4 days prior to the hurricane hitting land, and then 5-6 days afterwards.... What was the Mayor doing? Saving his own ass.  |
3-4 days prior to the hurricane? You think you can just evacuate the entire city every time a hurricane shows up in the gulf? You obviously don't live anywhere near the gulf. This storm was a 200-300 year storm, but hurricanes show up in the gulf all the time. Even hurricanes that look like they're headed straight for New Orleans are not rare.
Certainly, there were failures preparing and responding to this disaster at all levels of government, but to assign blame to the mayor (or anyone else) for not getting everyone out of the city prior to this hurricane is simply uninformed.
Like I said, I think it's possible he could have evacuated 10,000 to 20,000 out of the city. This would have been a fraction of the people who might have been willing to leave (who do you choose to stay and go?). It also would have been at the expense of the people who could not have left.