Friday, October 07, 2005
BusGate proliferates
This -perhaps better than any other example- shows why local officials are in charge of first response and not the feds. Local officials (ahem, the Mayor) should have known who to call. Once they knew there were busses on the wharf, they should have known they were just minutes from the Dome and the areas around the river never floods. (The convention center is also on the river and everyone knew it was fine) Locals know their area (or should) and -in any other city- can manage the response better then some bureaucrat flown in from Washington. Instead of trying to find a solution, Nagin whined that he was a victim.
If Nagin had used the resources available to him properly, he could have had the Dome evacuated by Tuesday at noon and much of the chaos that broke out in the city would have been avoided. But he didn't.
High-resolution satellite photographs or Mayor Nagin's flapping gums: which do you believe?
1 Comments:
By 
, at
Sun Apr 23, 10:58:00 AM:
So Nagin should have simply 'made some calls'? With the entire communications grid knocked out, how exactly was he supposed to make these calls?
And are you forgetting that those who remained in new orleans were in violation of the law in doing so?
You're SUCH the partisan revisionist.
So did you attack Rudy G for failing to have proper communications in place for 1st responders?
Did you villify Rudy for failing to evacuate the WTC once it was known that planes had deviated from their flight plans? I mean, he KNEW the WTC was a target- he had prior warning afterall.
When an event overwhelms the local authorities they ARE victims, they don't have to 'play' victim...and that is why we expect the Feds to step in and take up the slack.
