Who is really to blame for the deaths?

Tazman · 09-02-2005, 01:18 PM

My opinion is it is the Governor of La. If when she called fora mandantory evacuation she should have had every public school bus sent to NO along with every State Policemen. Then the State police along with the NO police could have gone block to block, door to door, escorting by force if needed every person in NO onto buses and taken them out of there.

The results of this action would have eleminated all of the deaths happening in NO and with no one left in the city there would have been no looting.

Who do you feel should take the blame for the deaths and looting and what is your reasoning for assigning the blame to them?

burniegoeasily · 09-02-2005, 01:37 PM

Thats fine and dandy, but did you see the interviews before the storm ? People were refusing to go. Also., a removal of that magnitude would have created a bigger problem, or at least in my eyes. Put buses full of people on roads trying to remove 1,000,000 people at the last moment., you would have had grid loc.More so than there was. Not a good situation when a hurican is breathing down your neck.Because to justify a mass evacuation like that the path of the stormhad to be know to a tee. The path was not know for sure until the last min.. Besides, where would you go? Who would/could take 1,000,000, people, that is one of the big problems now. Can you imagine the critisism the autorities would have come under for evacuating millions of people at the tax payer expense for no reason. That scenario plays to a, damed if you do/damed if you dont. I can understand the need to know where things went wrong. I cant point a finger. God gave us free will, and a large part of the people interviewed before the storm simply brushed off the warning as just another storm. Besides, if you have ever spent time in New Orleans you know of the poverty rate and large illiteracy rate. Sad to say, large part of the population either did not have the ability to leave or even the reservations to heed warnings. So to round every one up would have taken weeks or even months. I respect your scenerio I just feel it was not a possibility.

Tazman · 09-02-2005, 01:41 PM

Possibly burnie you are right, but there were an awful lot of folks that wanted to leave but couldn't due to a lack of transportation, and even if they were 5 miles inland from NO they would not be trapped in NO.

burniegoeasily · 09-02-2005, 01:46 PM

I could see that. Like I said, I feel it is impossible to point a finger because there are way to many variables involved that had to be accounted for ina matter of hours to make suchdecisions. I just pray that we overcome this with surprising speed.

Champlain Islander · 09-02-2005, 01:48 PM

I think you both make good points. I watched the weather channel and I could see that there wasn't any way Katrina could miss NO due to its size on Sat morning. I told my daughter to leave and she basically drove out of town to Memphis without any delays. Yes, there are always going to be people who refuse to leave but I bet if they started to go block to block with buses on Sat then many wouldhave gone. Most of the deaths in NO probably happened in the last 2 or 3 days. A faster response might have helped. Things are really changing for the better today due to the troops and the food and water being put into place. Too bad it wasn't on Tuesday and Wednesday.

DougMD · 09-02-2005, 02:23 PM

Just saw a picture of a bus yard stacked with empty buses. They were just parked the whole time when the mayor and/or governor should have mobilized them to get the people out. Remember the video showing no traffic on incoming lanes into N.O.? They could have used that 4 or so lane road to get those people, then take them out. Closing all but one lane for incoming traffic, and using the other three as outgoing for buses only could have saved a lot of people. Bush isn't to blame for that, the mayor of NO and governor of LA are!

burniegoeasily · 09-02-2005, 02:44 PM

My issue is, How do you round up all those people in the matter of hours. I guess the few they could have gotten would have been better than nothing, but then agian, where would they have taken these people?

badshotbob · 09-02-2005, 02:57 PM

Quote:

ORIGINAL: Tazman

... escorting by force if needed every person in NO onto buses and taken them out of there.

And you think I'm nuts, Taz? What the hell country you from anyway? Doesn't really sound like the way we do things round' here in these parts. Maybe we should have hauled them to the empty concentration camps?

badshotbob · 09-02-2005, 03:00 PM

Quote:

ORIGINAL: burniegoeasily

My issue is, How do you round up all those people in the matter of hours.Â*Â* I guess the few they could have gotten would have been better than nothing, but then agian, where would they have taken these people?

Exactly.

I'd be willing to be some, if not many people down there never knew this thing was even coming. These people can barely afford to buy food, to say nothing of tv or radios. I'll admit the evacuation came too late, but even if it was called upon Saturday rather than Sunday, people would have stayed, even if there were an empty bus in front of their house.

WANWTF · 09-02-2005, 04:47 PM

There was more time than an hour - I watched as the hurricane swept through FL and started gaining strength in the Gulf - they were saying at that time to leave - that was Friday - the brunt of it hit Monday.

The majority of those who stayed were in the mind set of "I've seen it before and I'll wait it out" -

Living in a coastal city built below sea level it wasn't a matter of "if" but "when".

The logistics of putting together help for that many people is HUGE... not only that, it doesn't help w/the numbnuts shooting at the help... But hey... Blame Bush. After all... those people who stayed are not to blame, those telling them to leave aren't to blame, those in power there w/out the foresite of the possible devistation aren't to blame..