--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "sparaig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "shempmcgurk" > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > > _Yahoo! News Photo_ > > > > > (http://news.yahoo.com/news? > > > > tmpl=story&u=/050901/480/flpc21109012015) > > > > > > > > > > Why didn't the mayor send these buses out to pick up the > poor > > > > > during his mandatory evacuation? > > > > > > > > News flash: Buses don't drive themselves. > > > > > > News flash to Judy: > > > > > > They were school buses..ANYONE can drive them. > > > > Are you a school bus driver? > > I have been in the past, for special events. > Shemp's right on this one in many states, where > only a regular driver's license (not a commercial > license) is required to drive a school bus.
However, this is irrelevant, but NOT because: That > doesn't have anything to do with anything in this > situation, because by the time the need to > evacuate hundreds of thousands of people became > evident, the roads were already impassable because > of the storm. The issue is why the buses weren't used *before* the roads became impassable. As soon as it became clear that Katrina was likely to hit New Orleans, the need to evacuate was evident. There's yet another obvious requirement for driving the buses that nobody has mentioned (although it was in one of my earlier posts). > Evacuation of the poor wasn't planned for, so it > didn't happen. That's not good. Trying to help > them once they were trapped *obviously* wasn't > planned for. That's not good. Lots of "not good" > to spread around here. What *was* planned for in the case of Katrina was to bus those who didn't evacuate to "shelters of last resort," i.e., the Superdome and a couple of others. There were buses assigned to this task, and many took advantage of them; thousands of lives were saved thereby. What was not planned for was for people to have to stay in the shelters as long as they did, because it was expected that a FEMA-led effort to get them out of the shelters and away from the hurricane- ravaged area would be mounted immediately. The city also had in the works a complex, long-term plan to have local churches identify people in need of transportation and assign them to car pools, but it had only begun to be implemented by the time Katrina arrived. The plan would have taken another year or so to be fully developed and operational. Another plan that was in process was to retrofit the Superdome with backup generators and water supply and other independent infrastructure so that it *could* be used to shelter people for longer than a day or two, but that wasn't completed in time either. So the need to evacuate the poor was very well recognized as essential and was being worked on, but Katrina arrived too soon. The inherent difficulties of evacuating a city with such a huge car-less, money-less population as New Orleans are immense. The city was doing the best it could with the resources it had available. Busing all those who wanted to leave away from the city was simply not possible with the short notice they had with Katrina, first because of the lack of drivers, and second because of the traffic problem. Another complication was that the number of people who wanted to leave but couldn't afford to rent a car or take commercial transportation was higher than it might have been because so many of the poor population were on government assistance, and Katrina arrived near the end of the month when they were almost out of funds. > Petty assholes on FFL slinging shit and trying to > make it land only on the people they don't like > is also not good. Get a life. Actually, sniping at folks who are discussing a complex problem when you're so ill informed yourself, for lack of anything else to contribute, is distinctly in the not-good, get- a-life category. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
