Here is the latest I could find on what's going on:
New Orleans evacuation slows as shooting, chaos erupt New Orleans evacuation suspended as shots fired Exodus From New Orleans Continues Amid Chaos I hope these are helpful. I tried to cull the most informative and up-to-date stories from what I could find.
Piq and I were discussing what should've happened prior to the hurricane strike, and she expressed to me her misgivings about Mayor Nagin as she posted above. My response was, "now, wait a minute, he may not have had the authority to do any of those things you think he should have done" (at the time, getting the airlines off their butts and flying people out was included in the discussion). After having thought about it some more, while he may not have had the authority(or the governors or other representatives), he could have asked or demanded of those who do(GWB, for instance), to step in and implement measures to help get people out of harm's way. Something on the order of, "(Mr. President/Governor of neighboring state/whoever), we need to get our people out, and we need you to (persuade the airlines/bus lines/trains to mobilize to evacuate people) or (open up "X" facilities to receive evacuees)." Also, requesting Guard troops
before the storm hit I think is a reasonable request. I don't think this is 20/20 hindsight, it's just common sense, and reasonable to expect a leader to have that amount of foresight and organization. I tried the "To Kill A Mockingbird" approach, put myself in his shoes, and believe I would have thought some of that stuff out in pretty short order(at least general requests for assistance from all levels) as soon as I realized it was a remote possibility that that terrible of a storm was going to strike my area of responsibility.
It may be that he did some or all of that, but the evidence suggests he didn't. Or the governors of LA and MS, for that matter.
In other words, honey, you're right.
