Another thought or two about Katrina- and preparations

Today I listened to the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, railing at the federal government for not stepping in fast enough to rescue his city. Its on the CNN video page right now but I can't figure out how to link it. I did find a transcript. Since then, I've been thinking about what the mayor did, since his time in office, to prepare for this type of disaster and disaster response.

He did order the city evacuated before the hurricane struck, didn't he? Sure he did. First on Saturday:

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin followed at 5 p.m., issuing a voluntary evacuation.

Nagin said late Saturday that he's having his legal staff look into whether he can order a mandatory evacuation of the city, a step he's been hesitant to do because of potential liability on the part of the city for closing hotels and other businesses.

"Come the first break of light in the morning, you may have the first mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," Nagin told WWL-TV.

But if he was so concerned with getting the people of New Orleans out of town, why are these buses still parked in a flooded yard? Why weren't they loaded with citizens and driven out of town while there was still time? And just 30 boats was all the city could scrounge for rescue efforts? Come on mayor! That's hardly a preparation plan!

In a somewhat surreal morning news conference, Mayor Ray Nagin issued an emergency order giving state and local authorities the right to commandeer private buildings and vehicles -- including boats -- as they see fit. The mayor did not say which buildings might be seized for public use, but said that if the Superdome became too full, additional buildings might be needed for shelter.

Nagin also said the city has 30 boats at its disposal, but could need far more, depending on the water level in the city after the storm.

So Nagin takes the President and FEMA and everyone he can think of to blame for not resucing his people, he wanted every greayhound bus in America on its way to save his people, but all he had was 30 boats and a couple hundres schools buses abandoned and unused.

Great plan Mayor, ya jackass!