Reply #4: you need to check your facts

[pitohui]

until blanco we had no really good contra-flow plan, under do-nothing mike foster it was pretty much every man for himself, but blanco got the ball rolling to work w. the mississippi state gov't and the different parishes to make sure that contra-flow worked

biloxi/gulfport is not in fact anywhere near as large in population as the greater new orleans area yet they did lose around 300 people to the storm surge, so it looks to the reasonable eye that mississippi lost people just about in the same proportion (or a greater proportion) to louisiana as you would expect, the tiny town of waveland alone lost 50 people -- that would be 10s of thousands lost in orleans if we'd lost people in the same proportions, indeed, because of our improved evacuation plans, houston lost 100 people evacuating for rita where the storm didn't even hit while cameron which was totally destroyed by rita lost not a single soul -- that's an evacuation plan, my friend

back to katrina -- the models showed that 60 percent of the population of the greater new orleans area would be able to evacuate by car, in the event, it was 80 percent -- 80 percent! -- 4 little words of nagin's when he issued the first ever mandatory evacuation of orleans parish probably saved hundreds of not thousands of lives : god help us all -- it wasn't a pretty speech, it wasn't a statesmanlike speech, but people suddenly realized that if they had a way to get out, maybe they'd better take it because nagin pulled no punches in describing the horror that was abt to ensue

and because of the improvements to the contr-flow, you could actually get out! traffic flowed and if you had a car, you were able to get to safety, if the same storm hit in florida today i guarantee that hundreds of people would die in their car on bridges, look at the size of their great storm (andrew) and compare it to the huge huge unprecedentedly large size of katrina, there just ain't no comparison


i'm tired of people who don't know diddly abt the area crapping on nagin and blanco, you don't have to like them, but they saved thousands of lives through their efforts, you have no clue what evacuation used to be like, because of our limited highways, which have to pass over many bridges

as recently as july of 2005 with hurricane dennis, upper jefferson parish evacuated out of order, if dennis had been katrina, people in lower jefferson parish could have been trapped and killed by the thousand, but blanco got w. the broussard and the jefferson parish authorities and by god she fixed it and made it clear that parishes would evacuate in an order allowing people on low-lying ground the first chance to get out

i don't know where you live or what experience you have w. hurricane evacuation but i'm here on the ground and i can tell you that crapping on nagin and blanco for bush's crimes is just plain criminal in my view

i have damn little use for nagin on a day-to-day basis but the fact remains the man gave the first ever mandatory evacuation order for orleans, in previous years, you know what public officials, white AND black, used to do? they just gave up and "suggested," there wasn't even an attempt made to save the people of the city

hurricane georges could have been katrina except it turned at the last minute, if it had continued on course, 100,000 people would have died

since there was only one perfect person in this world, no, nagin and blanco will never be jesus christ almighty, but you couldn't have done a better job of getting people out in the real world

when everyone is to blame, no one is to blame, i think DU has a duty to be reality-based and to put the blame where it belongs, on the federal gov't, not on local and state gov'ts which did amazing things w. pittances for budget