When someone says, "Where was Nagin's evacuation plan?" ask them this:

[gatorboy]

"So you approve of social programs for the poor?"

I would guess that the main reason for a lack of efforts in a full evacuation of everyone is money. N.O. is a tourist town and I know what it's like cause I live in one. Funds that could be provided for social services towards locals is never given top priority in a tourist town (Is it in any town?).

You have the busses, the drivers that have to be paid (overtime?), the gas for the busses, not to mention, where do you take them and for how long? If it's overnight do you feed them? Do you set them up in room somewhere? And you have to consider that since the hurricane just hit, it's more than likely camps have not been set up. You can't just drive until you find a nice spot...
And how much money would it take? What if only 20% of the city was able to evacuate, leaving thousands more to accommodate, what then?
And you'd still have to rely on the drivers staying and not taking off on you. You have to consider that they have families too and are more than likely making a bee line out of the city. So much stuff that when you think about it, it boggles the mind anything ever gets done in this country.

These would all be things that would have to be set up in a city budget wouldn't they? Should there already be a budget set up for this? Maybe. But the town isn't run strictly by the Mayor. You have people on the board, committees...People who see that money sitting somewhere and never being used. And some people on these boards might say to themselves, "Why set this money back for something that might happen? We could use this now."

And forget putting it on a ballot. If a politician said that he was proposing a half cent sales tax to raise money for hurricane relief that will cost millions, the same people that are now suddenly so concerned about the destitute would blow their tops. I mean, who are we kidding? They'd scream, "Hey we have FEMA for that! I'm not spending more of my money on something like this!"

So here's the issue on the matter: It would take tax money to provide the city with the funds to make such huge undertaking available. Lots of it. And imagine if 60% of the city stayed or couldn't leave on their own. How much would that cost?

We already know how some people feel about taxes going towards services that don't apply to them. How many people that are crying about this, truthfully, wouldn't mind millions more of their tax dollars set up for another public program? After all, these are the same people that go ballistic if an extra cent is even considered for a new education program or some sort of universal healthcare. Just think what they'd do if their money went into a program they might never use.

And now these people are worried about public programs for the poor? Pleeaasseee....

[Catherine Vincent]

1. His evacuation plan was to get them to the Superdome.

And it held up besides the two holes in the roof.

[lildreamer316]

2. VERY good point!! (the first line) . Thanks for this. n/t

[left is right]

3. I keep saying it,

as a mayor, he did not have the authority to put his people on buses and evacuate them to any other city or state. that maneuver would have burdened another city/state with expenses and the use of resources that no other city was obligated to take on. If he tried to do this, he would have been met at the border by armed state troopers

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. Another important point:

If you evacuate people who have no money, where do you put them and how do you feed and shelter them? No city could do that without cooperation from other communities.

[gatorboy]

5. And not to mention the hurricane season just started.

If Louisiana was hit with 3 or 4 of these things in the same year and they bussed all of these people everytime, what would the cost of that be?
These same individuals that are using the "No Busses" talking point, are now bitching about $2,000 debit cards for the same people. Do they ever stop switching their opinions?