Text 14861, 76 rader
Skriven 2005-09-03 14:10:05 av John Hull (1:123/789.0)
Ärende: Local Authorities Behind the 8 Ball for Decades
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While the liberals spend their time complaining about rescue efforts and  Bush
Administration failures in the wake of Katrina, none of them are talking about
how this disaster has been in the making for a very long time - long before
Bush was even born!

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IN KATRINA'S WAKE
New Orleans had many warnings
Just a year ago, Hurricane Ivan caused disaster plan review

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Posted: September 3, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern



(c) 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

A year ago, New Orleans reviewed its hurricane disaster plans after Hurricane
Ivan gave the city a major scare forcing the evacuation of nearly 1 million
people from the area.

What happened last September bears striking similarities to the problems
encountered before Hurricane Katrina struck. The only difference was Ivan
missed the city.

There were hours-long traffic jams. Those who had money fled, while the poor
stayed. The warnings were the same: Forecasters predicted that a direct hit on
the city would send torrents of water over the city's levees, creating a
20-foot-deep cesspool of human and industrial waste.

"They say evacuate, but they don't say how I'm supposed to do that," Latonya
Hill, 57, told the Associated Press at the time. "If I can't walk it or get
there on the bus, I don't go. I don't got a car. My daughter don't either."

Advocates for the poor were indignant in 2004 - just as they are complaining
now.

"If the government asks people to evacuate, the government has some
responsibility to provide an option for those people who can't evacuate and are
at the whim of Mother Nature," said Joe Cook of the New Orleans ACLU.

With Ivan, city officials first said they would provide no shelter, then, just
hours before the storm was set to hit land, they agreed that the state-owned
Louisiana Superdome would open to those with special medical needs.

Mayor Ray Nagin's spokeswoman, Tanzie Jones, insisted that there was no
reluctance at City Hall to open the Superdome, but said the evacuation was the
top priority.

"Our main focus is to get the people out of the city," she said.

But again, in 2004, no city or school buses were used to take people to safety.

Callers to talk radio complained about the late decision to open up the dome,
but the mayor said he would do nothing different.

And, indeed, he didn't do much different last weekend before Katrina struck.

Even the problems that occurred at the Superdome this week had a precedent -
during a threat by Hurricane Georges in 1998. An estimated 14,000 poured into
the stadium, but theft and vandalism were rampant.

During the threat by Ivan, only 1,100 fled to the Superdome and they were
supervised by 300 National Guardsmen, who were able to avoid major crime
problems.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Nagin both acknowledged after the Ivan near miss they
needed a better evacuation plan.

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