WHY DON'T THEY just bring A WHOLE BUNCH OF BIG BOATS up the river?????

[begin_within]

And use them as a floating temporary city - at least one large hospital ship and as many passenger ships as they can get - hell, an aircraft carrier holds 5000 people. Then use smaller boats to go around the city and pick up people and bring them to the big boats on the river? What would be the problem with that? The river is the city's lifeline anyway, why can't it be now?

[jessicazi]

1. maybe because of all the debris...

? nt

[ohio_liberal]

3. Debris in the water, yup

The undersides of the bridges look to be jammed up as well. Only flat bottomed boats are getting around.

[Mr_Spock]

2. I first thought it read "GOATS"

I thought you were suggesting that goats should be brought into NO because they will eat anything!!

Then I re-read the post title :D

[Not_Giving_Up]

4. The story is they're scared they'll be shot at

Why weren't they there before the shooting started? No one really knows, officially that is.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. How about a cruise ship?

Don't they hold a whole bunch of people?

[greblc]

6. Bring boats down If there is debris.

[Contrary1]

7. A ship is on the way from Norfolk, VA...

They will be stopping in Florida to pick up additional manpower and equipment. It won't arrive until sometime next week.

The government should have had that ship on the way before Katrina even hit. They could have stayed out of harm's way until the storm had passed. They would have already saved countless numbers of lives, instead of just starting out.

This is, without a doubt; the most inept administration I have ever seen.

[Cleita]

8. Where were you a day or two ago?

We have been suggesting that all along and of course the naysayers said it couldn't be done. All * had to do was get on the phone with the CEOs of the main cruise liners to do this and promise them FEMA funds for their expenses. He hasn't though.

Oh some suggested that it would ruin the vacations of people who booked on these ships. Oh, that really made me sick.

[Contrary1]

11. I am not sure if your post was directed to me or not?

I wasn't clear enough in my post above. This is a Navy ship, not a cruise liner. I think I heard that there is a large hospital onboard.

[Cleita]

12. Not really, I was saying that any ship that could be

pressed into duty should have been by our commander-in-chief days ago for this purpose.

[begin_within]

16. I was at the hospital with my Mom who had a pulmonary embolism.

[politicat]

9. Even at the best of times, the Mississippi is a difficult river.

The delta changes day by day, which is why river pilots are so necessary on the river. Now, the river has changed dramatically, there is a ton of debris and silt that wasn't there on Saturday, and so getting anything that has a deep draft up the river is going to be bad.

Further, when a hurricane is predicted, ships (what you were calling boats) are sent out to sea and out of the way of the hurricane. Ships are far better able to survive a storm on open water than they are in a crowded dock. So most of the ships that were in the region on Friday are probably still out to sea, and the rest are staying away so as not to cause more confusion.

The Naval ships are getting there, but the one thing most of us land lubbers (and I class myself as one) don't get is that the ocean is far vaster than we realize, and that ships by necessity travel slower than land traffic.

Signed,

A Navy Rear Admiral's daughter

[BigBearJohn]

10. WHAT ABOUT AMPHIBIOUS VEHICLES??????

[radar]

13. Maybe the irony...

Is the boat that "won the war"(WWII) was built in New Orleans; a flat bottom personnel landing craft...
LCVP - Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel
http://www.ussrankin.org/id41.htm

online encyclopedia Higgins boat
http://www.sproe.com/l/lcvp.html

...Officially designated as a Landing Craft, Vehicles and Personnel, this small craft was more commonly known by the name of its inventor, New Orleans businessman Andrew Jackson Higgins. A modification of Higgins' Eureka workboat, the LCVP was highly maneuverable and ideal for landing troops on beaches. Over 20,000 LCVPs were built by Higgins Industries...

The Boat That Sank Hitler
http://home.datawest.net/dawog/vaq132/s20000531wwii_landing_craft.htm
A former brewery just blocks from Harrah's Casino in the Big Easy might not seem the obvious location for the National D-Day Museum. There was, after all, nothing easy about World War II.

But the museum, set to open next weekend amid a four-day outpouring of ceremonies, lectures, parades and entertainment, has been conceived as a belated tribute not just to the soldiers, sailors and airmen who liberated Europe but to a rough-hewn New Orleans boat builder who made that liberation possible.

Andrew F. Higgins, says historian and museum founder-benefactor Stephen E. Ambrose, was nothing less than "the man who won World War II."

[Media_Lies_Daily]

14. There are about 100+ barges that have been sunk in the river, and.....

...the buoys and channel markers have all been moved.

That's not a real good environment for any ship with a deep draft like an aircraft carrier or hospital ship.

[The_Casual_Observer]

15. How about down the river?