President Appealed for Mandatory Evacuation Before Katrina Struck

[carpro]

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1125239940201382.xml&storylist=louisiana

Mandatory evacuation ordered for New Orleans
8/28/2005, 10:48 a.m. CT
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In the face of a catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, a mandatory evacuation was ordered Sunday for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin.

Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, the city set up 10 places of last resort for people to go, including the Superdome.

The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city , which is prone to flooding.

 

[Plain Old Bill]

That would be pro-active.Where were the police? Were they knocking on doors to get the peop;e out?Who was looking for the disabled people? That should have been done locally.

 

[carpro]

The Governor of Louisiana did not mobilize her National Guard until the following day, Aug. 29.
Why the delay?

 

[El_Guero]

POB

They would have been unable to mobilize the peorsonell to knock on 100,000+ doors and still get to safety ...

I would reckon, that some of the folks stranded (probably including the local government did not really believe the order.

We always had people that would remain on the island saying, "It won't be that bad".

 

[El_Guero]

They kinda sounded like this:

"That sun is shining too bright for this to be happening," said Joyce Tillis, manager of the Holiday Inn Select at the airport in the suburbs as she called the more than 140 guests to tell them the hotel was under a mandatory evacuation. "It's too nice a day."

Some folks do not reckognize the power of God's earth until it is too late.

 

[fromtheright]

carpro,

I'm sorry but I'm not sure what the point of your post is. That the President had no authority to make such a suggestion or to ask why state/local authorities didn't heed the suggestion sooner.

 

[El_Guero]

Carpro

I got (get) it ...

 

[Filmproducer]

I'm not sure either? I don't hear people criticizing the president for people not evacuating everyone before the storm. People are criticizing the LA state and local government for not doing that. The president and FEMA are being criticized for the slow response of aid. Which, frankly, IMO, is neither here nor there because all the government branches involved are responsible for this chaotic mess.

If the NOLA humane society could make sure that thousands of pets and animals were moved to safer areas and out of the state; then the local, state, and federal government could have been more equipped to make sure aid was immediately sent to those stranded.

 

[fromtheright]

El Guero,

Please share with the class. I wasn't being argumentative, I just didn't get it.

 

[carpro]

Gentlemen, this post is not a riddle. It's rather easy to get the point.

FTR, the President doesn't need any authority to make a suggestion.

The point is, he has been severely criticized by media, politicians, special interest groups, and members of this forum for not being more of a force to meet this disaster. Nothing could be further from the truth.

He declared the entire are a disaster area 8/27, two full days before the storm hit to open the way for FEMA to preposition assets. While the mayor and the governor twiddled their thumbs by saying "pretty please" to get people to evacuate, he urged them to make the evacuation mandatory on 8-28. Then the governor still waits another 24 hours to mobilize her National Guard.

He doesn't sound like a man who was disconnected or uninvolved in any way. He took all the steps the law allowed him to take.

Local officials in Louisiana were slow to make decisions and slow to act. It's almost as if they had to have someone hold their hands and guide them through this mess.

Was FEMA perfect? No.

But the signals are mixed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

The people of Alabama have thanked President Bush and FEMA through their representative Govenor Bob Riley who said "Thank you for all the help. FEMA has been absolutely great."

Is there enough blame to go around? Of course.
But I believe the primary responsibility for the problems lies with the local officials.

Not George W. Bush. As so many seem to think.

 

[Daisy]

Originally posted by Plain Old Bill:
That would be pro-active.Where were the police? Were they knocking on doors to get the peop;e out?Who was looking for the disabled people? That should have been done locally.

According to carpro's article, yes.

The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco... said Interstate 10, which was converted Saturday so that all lanes headed one-way out of town, was total gridlock.

<snip>

Previous hurricanes evacuations in New Orleans were always voluntary, because so many people don't have the means of getting out. Some are too poor and there is always a French Quarter full of tourists who get caught.

"This is a once in a lifetime event," the mayor said. "The city of New Orleans has never seen a hurricane of this magnitude hit it directly," the mayor said.

He told those who had to move to the Superdome to come with enough food for several days and with blankets. He said it will be a very uncomfortable place and encouraged everybody who could to get out.

Nagin said police and firefighters would spread out throughout the city sounding sirens and using bullhorns to tell residents to get out. He also said police would have the authority to comandeer any vehicle or building that could be used for evacuation or shelter.

The Superdome was already taking in people with special problems. It opened about 8 a.m. and people on walkers, some with oxygen tanks, began checking in.

In a neighborhood in central city, a group of residents sat on a porch. It was almost a party atmosphere.

"We're not evacuating," said Julie Paul, 57. "None of us have any place to go. We're counting on the Superdome. That's our lifesaver."

She said they'd spent the last couple of hurricanes there. They would wait for a friend who has a van to take them, because none has cars.

At a nearby gas station, Linda Young, 37, was tanking up her car.

"I'm really scared. I've been through hurricanes, but this one scares me. I think everybody needs to get out," she said.

She said they planned to leave Saturday but couldn't get gas, and didn't want to go without it, so got up early and got in a gas line.

In the suburbs, evacuations were under way.

<snip>

If you're really poor and don't have a car, as many city folk do not (I didn't even learn to drive until I was thirty), how do you get out of town? If you have no money or credit cards, where do you go if you do get on a bus heading out?

 

[fromtheright]

Thanks, carpro, and I absolutely agree! But I will say, and I don't mean to derail the thread, that one thing that nags at me is that someone, somewhere was terribly delinquent, at the Army Corps of Engineers or whoever made the decision, in building levees to deal with a Level III hurricane. I certainly don't believe it was President Bush's fault, as the decision probably preceded him. Do I think someone should be punished? No, as I suspect the decision was made with some care, but it seems terribly shortsighted to have planned for a Level III when there is a history of Level V's in the Gulf and when the consquences have turned out to be so disastrous.

 

[El_Guero]

I have been through a real hurricane. Beulah (Cat 4)

Boots cost money, and levees cost a lot of boots ... The only way to protect against a Cat 5 is to fill in most of New Orleans that is below sea level. Guess what? We can now.

Shortsighted? The difference between a 3 and a 4 is BIG. A five? EVACUATE ... in English - GET OUT. It is like the difference between a 7 and a 9.5 on the Richter scale for Earthquakes. 7 is bad. 9.5 just keep running until you cannot. The same is true for a Cat 5 hurricane. Just look at what happened where the full force hit in Mississippi. Concrete bunkers above ground (or get out).

Had that hit New Orleans ... Had Allison hit N.O. Had Beulah hit N.O.

Everyone that has lived on the Gulf knows that N.O. is long over due for that direct hit. I hate to say it, but this WAS NOT A DIRECT HIT.

Ironically, the same forces that protect the keys also seem to protect the New Orleans area... But, every now and then ... a real one gets through.

We need to force Government to elevate the city.

 

[El_Guero]

And that inability to protect against a Cat 5 is why the President asked that the city be evacuated.

 

[fromtheright]

El Guero,

You may be right, and I certainly don't have any expertise or experience on this subject, but it seems to me that the present problem, and the reason for the disastrous proportion we have, is that the levees failed. It just seems to me that there is engineering available that would have prevented that failure. I agree with you that the city should have been evacuated but that would not have prevented the disaster, it just would have reduced the human scale we see but not the destruction.

 

[El_Guero]

FTR

The expense was prohibative. Now that the houses are gone, the government needs to mandate a minimum altitude standard.

 

[fromtheright]

EG,

Maybe I'm wrong but it seems to me it would be less expensive and much easier to do to appropriately fortify the levees than raising the altitude of an entire city. You're certainly right that it would reduce the destruction (and loss of life for those unable or unwilling to evacuate), but building up the levees just seems more practical.

 

[El_Guero]

FTR

The "SMALLER" huricane I went through cut through padre island in 25 places if I remember right. Two mile+ island with an average altitude of 2.5 to 10 feet. Just cut right through ... when a hurricane moves water, the water is like one BIG GORILLA. That hurricane spawned over 150 tornadoes ... I forget how many hiroshima sized bombs to make the equivelant comparison. But a hurricane is like 1,000 nuclear bombs.

To take the levees from a Cat 3 (actually a small hurricane) to a cat 5, this engineering would require a major overhaul of the layout of the entire city. The best method would be to raise at LEAST half of the city to above sea level. Then people would have safer places to move to.

 

[fromtheright]

Thanks, EG. I hope you made it through Beulah okay.

 

[El_Guero]

Lots of people did, and a lot of snow birds did not. They tho't the storm was over.