5,000 Wait On Overpbutt 2402

Sancho Panza

Well, I disagree, and you lack the basis to say any different. The fact is, tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of people *did* get out; we know this; and likely many thousands of them were due in part to the actions of third parties. So "things" were done, starting with city or state-directed traffic control. Just not enough to get everyone, and maybe not as much as could have been done even with the limited time frame.

You need to look at some maps or some of the aerial coverage. The flood water did not respect the municipal boundary line, darn thing that it is. It went *all over* the place. It is not only municipal New Orleans that was flooded. In fact, the French Quarter did not flood.

I agree the officials have a lot for which to answer. I have never said they did a good job. What I've said consistently is that you fantasizers in here who believe Superman could have come to the rescue with but a few hours left are full of it. To evac the city effectively would have required that there be in place, preferably for years so it is fully understood, an effective logistical plan, a brave decision to implement such a drastic measure (which lack of courage I believe caused state and local folks to blink while refusing to fathom that this was THE storm) on Friday at the latest, effective staging of the resources, etc.

You cannot slap this together on Sunday morning.

BTW, I have never disputed that the eye of the storm made landfall Monday morning. The eye is the *center* of the storm. The high winds and torrential rains began the night before. You would not have had Monday morning available to you for any effective evac operations, therfore, no 48 hour window after mandatory evacuation was finally decided. It was more like 12 hours or less, and simply not enough time.

I said thousands of things were done; not necessarily by public emergency officials, but by every person in the danger zone. Just by calling for voluntary evac Saturday morning, the city set most of those in motion. Unfortunately too late.

There was not inaction; you confuse the fact that not enough was done with your illogical conclusion that this means *nothing* was done. I don't excuse anything. I am simply pointing out that without an effective plan ready to implement at the belated hour that officials finally recognized the full extent of the problem -- which I agree came too late but hindsight is always clearer -- it isn't physically possible to have done what you and the other "where was Superman?" posters wanted done.

They waited too long. It's inexcusable. But it remains that logistically speaking, it could not have been done at that late hour.