Southeast Louisiana Evacuation Plan

Wow. You guys are fast. I'm still wading through the thing. The first few pages were just blank lines.
 
Pepper said:
http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26

I don't recall any of these shelters even being mentioned.
These were not "Shelters Of Last Resort" Or "Supershelters" as noted in the report. I have seen other shelters named BUT I believe some of them may have flooded or been evacuated to OTHER shelters when the levees failed. It appears that most people either went to the Superdome OR to the Convention Center - which was NOT a shelter. Think people thought that ANY big public building would accomodate them?
Many people did not go (and had no intention of going) to ANY shelter. Nor did they attempt to evacuate. Despite all the information distributed I have a feeling many of them did not even know WHERE they should go and they were not prepared for the failure of the levees. I'm not sure HOW you plan effectively for a segement of the populace who by choice defies a mandated evacuation. A great percentage of these people did not leave because they didn't WANT TO - when rescued they didn't say I COULDN'T EVACUATE, they said I chose not to evacuate.
What's a city to do? We already know the Gov't cannot force people to evacuate if the do not want to.
 
Pepper said:


The governor is to authorize the opening of shelters in non-emergency parishes. This was not done. Not for nearly an entire week after the hurricane, and then when they were opened, it was at the directive of the Red Cross.

I think the lack of shelters away from the New Orleans area kept many people at home. Those who do not have credit cards or large amounts of cash cannot afford to stay in a hotel for days on end. Some evacuees had friends and families to take them in, but even today I was standing in line at Walmart with a lady from Metarie who is STILL in a hotel. Her credit cards are about to max out and she is waiting to receive money from FEMA or the Red Cross.

No credit cards plus no free shelters equaled my family and I must stay home.

dang, I had to edit about a hundred times. Sorry about spelling, grammar, etc.
 
kgeaux said:
The governor is to authorize the opening of shelters in non-emergency parishes. This was not done. Not for nearly an entire week after the hurricane, and then when they were opened, it was at the directive of the Red Cross.

I think the lack of shelters away from the New Orleans area kept many people at home. Those who do not have credit cards or large amounts of cash cannot afford to stay in a hotel for days on end. Some evacuees had friends and families to take them in, but even today I was standing in line at Walmart with a lady from Metarie who is STILL in a hotel. Her credit cards are about to max out and she is waiting to receive money from FEMA or the Red Cross.

No credit cards plus no free shelters equaled my family and I must stay home.

dang, I had to edit about a hundred times. Sorry about spelling, grammar, etc.

No you are not alone. These apologists don't recognize what it means to scrape by.The average income in the US doesn't apply to everyone only the top 20% can be above any repercussion.The rest of people don't rely on the government but are classified as the working poor. Oh, boohoo, then they should die. NOT!I am not suggesting a socialist republic but why can't we have national health care like the Canadiens?
 
Other things that weren't done or didn't follow the plan:

The plan calls for staging areas to pick up people and move them to safety in host parishes. This was not done. Any people who were picked up were sent to shelters of last resort, like the Super Dome. I'm not sure why, except that I believe calling for a mandatory evacuation a mere 20 hours before expected landfall is cutting it a little close.

The school bus thing obviously went terribly wrong. I have *heard* but not seen in print, that the drivers evacuated, so busses were available, but no one there to drive and pick up the people.
 
concernedperson said:
No you are not alone. These apologists don't recognize what it means to scrape by.The average income in the US doesn't apply to everyone only the top 20% can be above any repercussion.The rest of people don't rely on the government but are classified as the working poor. Oh, boohoo, then they should die. NOT!I am not suggesting a socialist republic but why can't we have national health care like the Canadiens?

Oh,oh. I worded my post a little funny, even after all that editing. I must have skipped my coffee this morning! I was talking about poorer families that stayed behind in New Orleans because they lacked the means to pay for a hotel room--you wouldn't believe how many people at the Cajun Dome have given that as a reason! Some of these people had cars, but no where to go. It is really pitiful.

I just can't understand why we didn't open up shelters like the Cajun Dome ahead of the storm? Why wait until a week later?
 
kgeaux said:
Other things that weren't done or didn't follow the plan:

The plan calls for staging areas to pick up people and move them to safety in host parishes. This was not done. Any people who were picked up were sent to shelters of last resort, like the Super Dome. I'm not sure why, except that I believe calling for a mandatory evacuation a mere 20 hours before expected landfall is cutting it a little close.

The school bus thing obviously went terribly wrong. I have *heard* but not seen in print, that the drivers evacuated, so busses were available, but no one there to drive and pick up the people.
Is it a cleansing of America?I am so questioning right now. I completely agree that there were no drivers no matter how many busses were available. I heard Nagin scream when there was no help. I heard his pain and I heard a lot of pain. I don't think he is the man to lead New Orleans to the future but I have to accept that he was acknowledging a lot of wrongs. Even if it was to call attention.And I personally think he was calling attention and has no intention of furthering his political future.He is done but he need what was right. FEMA boy is gone.
 
concernedperson said:
Is it a cleansing of America?I am so questioning right now. I completely agree that there were no drivers no matter how many busses were available. I heard Nagin scream when there was no help. I heard his pain and I heard a lot of pain. I don't think he is the man to lead New Orleans to the future but I have to accept that he was acknowledging a lot of wrongs. Even if it was to call attention.And I personally think he was calling attention and has no intention of furthering his political future.He is done but he need what was right. FEMA boy is gone.

I have to wonder, concerned. The cleansing of the New Orleans projects? I really did not believe this had anything at all to do with race in the beginning, but I am wondering now. The things that weren't followed in the plan were the things that would have a direct impact upon the ability of the poorest among us to get out.

I haven't made up my mind if it was a deliberate decision or just ineptitude. But it had some pretty horrible reprecussions for these people, no matter what the cause.

I hope good will come out of this. I hope that getting this large poor population out into other cities where they see the residents caring about them and eager to help them will result in these people making something out of their lives. God knows that was impossible while they were in the projects.
 
Having a car but nowhere to go means that people do not really understand the meaning of evacuating. If you have a car but nowhere to go, you need to go away from the area and find a safe place away from the area . There is evacuating, and then there is having a family evacuation plan. The two are not mutually exclusive. I'm not blaming the people who didn't evacuate, I am wondering how the evacuation order was understood by them.

Not having a plan should not keep people from evacuating when their lives are in danger, I wonder how many of the people who had a car but nowhere to go really understood that their very lives were in danger?
 
BirdieBoo said:
Having a car but nowhere to go means that people do not really understand the meaning of evacuating. If you have a car but nowhere to go, you need to go away from the area and find a safe place away from the area . There is evacuating, and then there is having a family evacuation plan. The two are not mutually exclusive. I'm not blaming the people who didn't evacuate, I am wondering how the evacuation order was understood by them.

Not having a plan should not keep people from evacuating when their lives are in danger, I wonder how many of the people who had a car but nowhere to go really understood that their very lives were in danger?

A safe place may be difficult to find if you do not have the funds to pay for your stay. I am hearing evacuees at the Cajun Dome say they wanted to leave, but couldn't afford to pay for a hotel room. Our shelters should have been opened along with the evacuation order, IMO. That's what the LEOP seems to call for.

And you really hit the nail on the head with your last comment. There is a tendency here to remember the many storms that we've dodged, the ones we rode out and survived. I think most believed that this would just be another rough storm, then they'd pick up the pieces, clean things up and keep on living their lives. We won't see that attitude for a long, long time cuz this storm sure woke every body up to the very real danger of staying behind.
 
Another thing,what if the government decides we aren't worthy? We don't contribute to the causes that they think are worthy? Like the sugar cane farmers and their heritance tax? Do you think that the Caffery's are above reproach? Do you think for one minute that your family doesn't deserve an equal chance? Do you think that your hard work is recognized? Lots of questions, and lots of unanswered responses. Can you tell I know a lot about Louisiana? I know the core and will respond even if I am called down. Do you need to know more?
 
Let me clarify, by "a safe place", I meant a place away from the immediate crisis.

I do understand that many people do not have funds to stay in hotels, but to me, I would think it would be better to be sleeping in my car at a wal mart parking lot or some such... than living in sewage, amongst rapists, snipers, looters and other mayhem, or worse, dead.
 
I think that a lot of people did not understand the severity of the situation. Is disaster preparedness taught in the public schools there? It should be.

If there is any bright spot to be found from that B!%$# Katrina, it's that (I hope) a lot more people in the USA are going to be more individually prepared.
 
BirdieBoo said:
Let me clarify, by "a safe place", I meant a place away from the immediate crisis.

I do understand that many people do not have funds to stay in hotels, but to me, I would think it would be better to be sleeping in my car at a wal mart parking lot or some such... than living in sewage, amongst rapists, snipers, looters and other mayhem, or worse, dead.

Oh, good. You have a car. I assume it wasn't boosted?

Not trying to be a mean from hell but the situation isn't what you would call hope.No choice....and I mean no choice if you live in Desire.Can you even conceive this level of poverty?
 
The reality is it would take at a minimum 72 hours of around the clock bus's trains etc to evacuate a region the size of the New Orleans area. The 24 hour Mandatory evacuation notice rendered it impossible to evacuate new Orleans.
 
tybee204 said:
The reality is it would take at a minimum 72 hours of around the clock bus's trains etc to evacuate a region the size of the New Orleans area. The 24 hour Mandatory evacuation notice rendered it impossible to evacuate new Orleans.

That is absolutely the truth, Tybee. And in one of your links I believe I read that Amtrack even offered to take people out of the city, but city officials declined their offer. What was that all about?
 
I think the City Goverment was more concerned with liablility then culpability at the time.

The first link in the failure of the system.
 

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