New Orleans Flashback: Officals Warned Residents 'you'll Be On Your Own'

[Desertdog]

NEW ORLEANS FLASHBACK: OFFICALS WARNED RESIDENTS 'YOU'LL BE ON YOUR OWN'
http://drudgereport.com/flash3kt.htm

Before residents had ever heard the words "Hurricane Katrina," the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE ran a story warning residents: If you stay behind during a big storm, you'll be on your own!

Editors at TIMES-PICAYUNE on Monday called for every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be fired. In an open letter to President Bush, the paper said: "Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame."

But the TIMES-PICAYUNE published a story on July 24, 2005 stating: City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give a historically blunt message: "In the event of a major hurricane, you're on your own."

Staff writer Bruce Nolan reported some 7 weeks before Katrina: "In scripted appearances being recorded now, officials such as Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm's way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation."

"In the video, made by the anti-poverty agency Total Community Action, they urge those people to make arrangements now by finding their own ways to leave the city in the event of an evacuation.

"You're responsible for your safety, and you should be responsible for the person next to you," Wilkins said in an interview. "If you have some room to get that person out of town, the Red Cross will have a space for that person outside the area. We can help you."

Developing...

 

[Bigfoot]

So this is why the mayor didn't enact the emergency evacuation plan? Because they had a better one and it went 'Your on your own'? They couldn't even attempt get out say 20,000 hospital patients or the elderly? Nice, I guess the second part of the plan was to quickly find someone else to blame. :banghead:

Something smells here, and it's not just the incompetence. There's something else going on. I'm thinking we better keep a good eye on who has control of the big $ that will be flowing into NO and LA.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Someone also needs to drag the editor(s) of the Times-Picayune back to their own article and run their noses in it. Publicly.

 

[Desertdog]

If you stay behind during a big storm, you'll be on your own!

If I refused to leave an area that was probably going to be devestated, I would expect to be on my own.
Stupid is as stupid does.

 

[El Rojo]

Lets not confuse this thing. There is a difference in knowing you need to get out, having the ability to get out, and staying behind vs. knowing you need to get out, not having the ability to get out, and having no choice but to stay behind. I know the classic, "They get what they deserve" line, but in this case, most of these people were poor, disabled, elderly, and car-less. How were they supposed to get out?

Oh, by riding on the hundreds of school and city buses that eventually sat there flooded. So yes, the local government dropped the ball. Yeah in a perfect world everyone would be self-sufficient, but lets face it, some people are poor and destitute and don't have many options. You can be arrogant and say, "survival of the fitest", hey you have your money and resources. I choose to recognize that not everyone is as fortunate as I was and if we could have used those buses that otherwise just sat there to get those people out, we should have. Hindsight is 20/20 and I wasn't there.

 

[JohnBT]

Well, when he announced the evacuation he told them to take food and water and such to the Superdome because there wouldn't be anything there for them.

What more do you want from the man?

Is he running for re-election or running for his life/career?


John