Oh, now it's *2,000* school buses left unused in New Orleans.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050906-122931-2126r.htm



Who's this Pruden prick?

now wouldn't it?

Was that the only resource available? Does that have anything to do with getting food or water into the city? How did 3 Duke students get in in Hyundai?

It took several days to get 30,000 out of the Superdome using buses and with the people in one nice, compact area.

Take that and extrapolate out to 100,000 people spread all over Orleans Parish.

Now, get them out of the city in 24-48 hrs before the storm hits.



Ain't possible.


But the ones trying to blame Mayor Nagin just won't face the reality of it.

FEMA Outsourced New Orleans Disaster Plans

http://www.wnymedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid=35



by Wayne Madsen



shows us the company, Innovative Emergency Management, Inc. IEM for short, that should have planned out rescue and relief efforts in New Orleans. I also note that it took around FIVE whole days but FEMA finally got around to the process of privatizing bus contracts to rescue those New Orleans Superdome/ConventionCenter refugees. Those bus contracts appear to have gone from 650 to 5000 by the time FEMA realized people were AT those sites !



FEMA Urges Patience

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18540



“ *Convoys of food, water and ice which are arriving hourly in impacted areas.

*The evacuation of thousands from New Orleans to Texas. FEMA has contracted for more than 650 buses to expedite the state-ordered evacuation.”



Local Company Sending Charter Buses to Gulf

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2005/local/09/02/bus.html



“The Federal Emergency Management Agency is mobilizing 5,000 buses nationwide.” This is from a Cincinnati, OH bus company ; a No. Carolina Christian bus charter firm also got a contract





Community Offers Relief

BY JENNIFER MENSTER

Record Staff Writer

Saturday, September 3, 2005



http://www.hickoryrecord.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=HDR/MGArticle/HDR_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784847098&path=



So, you can see, FEMA was ‘privatizing’ the rescue/relief effort and dawdling in this effort, rather than expediting rescue/relief that the National Guard/military could have been doing.

n/t

Pruden, is not a noted right winger...

I understand school buses are about 200-250 and RTA is about 300-400?

Even with 5,000 buses, it's NOT FEASIBLE to evacuate 100,000 spread all over the city in a 24-48hr timeframe. Just ain't gonna happen.

Maybe for outlaying areas ... still seems high.

The 220 number that's been bandied about (or whatever it was, precisely--it was around 200) seems a bit too low. It implies a maximum of 22000 kids taken to public schools by bus in NOLA.

The following quotes are part of a report, "National Review of Hurricane Evacuation Plans and Policies," prepared by the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, which you can download here: http://www.hurricane.lsu.edu/&EvacuationReview.pdf

<snip>
"...The number of people
without access to transportation in New Or-
leans, has been estimated as high as 25 to 30
percent of the population. In addition to people
without vehicles, potential evacuees include the
indigent, elderly, prisoners, the infirm, and
tourists."

<snip>
"...Busing is the most common mode of
transportation for low mobility groups. To
transport people in busses, emergency man-
agement agencies have in the past contracted
with local transit authorities, school districts,
and tour operators, with varying levels of
success. Many heavily populated cities do not
have an adequate supply of busses to move all
low-mobility evacuees. "

<IMPORTANT SNIP>
"For example, about
250,000 residents of New Orleans (not includ-
ing tourists or special needs populations)
Low Mobility Groups and Use of Public Transit
have no means of private transportation..."

<AND HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT SNIP>
"...The
total number of busses in all of New Orleans
would provide only a fraction of the capacity
needed to transport all of these people. Thus,
Louisiana emergency management officials
plan to use any available alternative means of
transportation, including National Guard
vehicles. They also plan to open local shelters
and refuges of last resort for those not able to
evacuate."