George Bush controls the weather apparantly.

[cranbrryjmp1981]

So now the who situation is being turned into a racial issue.  It's George Bush's fault that troops took as long as they did to get to New Orleans, because George Bush hates blacks.  The whites were evacuated first, leaving the poor black people behind to die.  The blacks who couldn't afford to leave or didn't have the means were stuck at their

Comments

[bunnigurl]

I agree with most of this - but I put more blame on local politicians. Yes the feds should have gotten relief out here sooner (how 'bout like when a "pre-disaster emergency" was declared on Saturday? Why weren't all of these resuce people, supplies and shelters already being staged?)

But guess what - it was up to the local officials, who knew what was going to happen, to come up with a better plan than half-assedly opening up the Superdome as a "shelter of last resort." This should have been in the plans for years - a plan to start busing people out BEFORE the storm hit.

I'm sorry, but they knew it. It's just that nobody wanted to believe it.

And you're right - black people down there are, for the most part, their own worst enemy right now. Nagin can be included in that. To me, that's the best defense against people like the Rev. Jesse Jackson coming in and complaining about the situation. It wasn't as if New Orleans was run by white people, no was it?!

[cranbrryjmp1981]

Well, the Superdome has always been utilized in this capacity, especially in the last few years. So that's definitely a part of the plan

[cranbrryjmp1981]

Also, yeah, I agree alot of this blame can be put on local politicians. So many of them don't want to step on anyone's toes and hurt and future political chances. Which is excatly why Cooper Anderson called out Mary Landrieu yesterday when she sidestepped around whether or not the federal government made a mistake in waiting so long to come in. Nagin on the other hand, did a good job by calling out not just our governor, but the whole political system. He was right. Local higherups didnt want to step on any toes and say that it's FUCKED UP that we can get billions of dollars in aid to Iraq and to the Tsunami victims, but we can't get troops and aid to New Orleans

The Big Easy.

[bunnigurl]

The Superdome was utilized in the "shelter of last resort" capacity only one other time that I can remember - during Hurricane Georges. And if I remember correctly, people were walking out with furniture on their way out after the storm missed us. I personally think this is the reason Nagin waited until the eleventh hour to give the go ahead to bus people there - he knew what a disaster it was last time. Remember that up until Saturday night the dome was only for special needs residents.

You're right that most people should have taken advantage of the transportation to get to the Superdome, but the fact is that the same exact things would have happened. Yes the Superdome has a capacity of something like 72,000 - but that's for maybe a 5-hour sporting event, not for sheltering people. Did they have enough food and water to cover feeding that many people for as long as it would have taken to evacuate everyone from the dome

[briteredcolor]

thank you!

[buggirl326]

that was beautifully put. It put a smile on my face because you are so right.