what part of 'get out' did they not understand?

MANY of the people who didn't leave live from paycheck to paycheck. They chose to stay because payday was coming up and they simply needed the money. In the tradition of "it couldnt happen to me", they thought they could ride it out with minor problems and still be able to work and pick up their paycheck on payday. Thats the simple truth and reasoning behind their not leaving.

If the NOLA plan all along was to use the Superdome as a shelter against a disaster like this, then why on earth, somebody tell me, was there not a 10 day store of food, water, medicines and the basic necessities for life warehoused near the 'Dome, above maximum flood level if the levees broke? Or even if the levees didnt break?? This is local NOLA Fema, local and state govt. responsibility for the most part. They dropped the ball by not preparing for what has been said for decades was an eventuality. The "It's not going to happen on my watch, in my political term" mentality is what has killed all of those people down there. Absolutely mind numbing to me is the lack of preemptive action on the local and state levels.

I know that it is way too late to think of this solution now. But I don't know why someone didn't think of this 10 to 20 years before the hurricane struck. The mayor of New Orleans should have gotten an agreement with Amtrak and the railroads that come into the city to evacuate people before a major storm hit. I'm going out on a limb here but those Superliners they use can carry about 200 to 300 a car. So why not have Amtrak bring trains of those cars coaches, diners, sleepers, etc., down there and help get those people out of there? If you had a donation for the train crews, give it to them, but if a person didn't have any donations whatsoever, LET THEM ON THE TRAIN FOR FREE!

Would have been possible to have evacuated EVERYONE from New Orleans by rail! These Superliner cars an hold over three hundred per car depending on the configurations on the inside.

OMG [edit]. How could these people leave if they had no money, no cars, nothing. In the evacuation plans that were never used they realized that a hell of a lot of people would have no way of getting out. They knew that buses would be needed to get the poor out before the hurricane struck but they did nothing.

If i tell you to leave the US now and you had no money, no plane and no pilots license, no boat, nothing at all. How will you leave, swim? How dare any of you blame them for not leaving, they couldn't. It was the responsibility of our government to get them out, just as they had planned but failed to do so. You should ashamed of yourselves.


Mod Edit: to remove insult.

[edit on 5-9-2005 by kinglizard]

Originally posted by NinjaCodeMonkey
OMG you people are so ignorant. How could these people leave if they had no money, no cars, nothing. In the evacuation plans that were never used they realized that a hell of a lot of people would have no way of getting out. They knew that buses would be needed to get the poor out before the hurricane struck but they did nothing.

If i tell you to leave the US now and you had no money, no plane and no pilots license, no boat, nothing at all. How will you leave, swim? How dare any of you blame them for not leaving, they couldn't. It was the responsibility of our government to get them out, just as they had planned but failed to do so. You should ashamed of yourselves.

Two things that should have been done that weren't done.

#1. This should have been done twenty years ago, and that is reconstruct the levees to cope with that strong of a storm

#2. Put the poor and immobile on busses and take them to the train station just up the street from the Superdome. If they had any donations or NONE AT ALL, put them on the dam train and send them to points North, East, and West.

To have evacuated the remaining residents safely and ORDERLY, and that is to have had Amtrak keep trains on stand-by in an emergency basis. This is because those Superliner cars can carry 300 people in them. About ~100,000 decided to stay, so it would have only taken SEVEN trains to have evacuated everyone.

How do you evacuate people who refuse to leave?

From the Times-Picayune August 28, 2005

Nagin orders first-ever mandatory evacuation of New Orleans
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called for a first-ever mandatory evacuation of the city this morning, saying that Hurricane Katrina’s devastating power may well create the sort of cataclysmic damage that residents have long worried that a killer storm could cause in a city that lies mostly below sea level.

*snip*

Around 112,000 Orleanians do not own cars, according to census data. Nagin urged those people to seek rides with friends, family, neighbors and church members. Those who could not find rides were urged to get to the Superdome as quickly as possible.

Regional Transit Authority buses were scheduled to ferry people to the dome from 12 locations around the city beginning at noon today.

Meantime, to make sure word of the mandatory evacuation gets out, Nagin said that police and fire crews would be driving through neighborhoods Sunday with bullhorns, directing people to leave.

What happened to the food and water?

26,000 shelter at Superdome
About 26,000 New Orleans residents sought refuge from Hurricane Katrina at the Superdome, which authorities describe as the "shelter of last resort," Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said late Sunday. To help keep them fed and hydrated, the Louisiana National Guard delivered three truckloads of water and seven truckloads of MREs — short for "meals ready to eat." That's enough to supply 15,000 people for three days, according to Col. Jay Mayeaux, deputy director of the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Emergency Preparedness.

Whether people were able to evacuate or not had little to do with how many actually stayed. NOLA was evacuared last year for Ivan and nothing happened. They were evacuated again this year for Dennis and again nothing happened. They were told that this storm would be comparable to Cammile. Those who survived Cammile felt that they could survive Katrina and many chose to stay.

Hindsight is always 20-20.

To answer the thread author, 'What part of "get out" did they not understand'?

Ok, so many threads, I can't find my post, so I will paraphrase.

2 days notice, 48 hours. Without transportation the average person walks approx. 4 miles/hr. If you walk for 48 hours that would get you 192 miles. Is that enough? Would you tire over time? I think so. Thus the distance would diminish, due to fatigue. Now, you're facing a HUGE hurricane out in the open. Is this a better scenario than hunkering down and trying to ride it out?

This doesn't take into account, children, infirm, etc. All of which slows you down.

Bottom line, some had NO choice but to stay.

Originally posted by darkelf
NOLA was evacuared last year for Ivan and nothing happened. They were evacuated again this year for Dennis and again nothing happened. They were told that this storm would be comparable to Cammile. Those who survived Cammile felt that they could survive Katrina and many chose to stay.

This is exactly what I heard was the main reason people didn't evacuate. They had evacuated before for the other storms and it costs money to leave, stay in hotels, eat out, money these people just didn't have. They hesitated to leave because they simply couldn't afford another false alarm.

Each time they had evacuated, it was a wasted expense. People lost their jobs because they had evacuated and couldn't get back home to go to work.

It's pretty easy for me to look out in the driveway and see 2 vehicles full of gas and know that if I had to, I'd evacuate and have plenty of money to even relocate if I had to, but that's just not the situation with the majority of the people there.