Could this be true?

[Eager Beaver]

People keep saying they could have left but where was they to go ????? With no money to pay for lodging or food. You seen what happened when some people went to the Superdome, and the arena.

[Don G]

Mr Beaver my best freind of the past 10 years is down in New Orleans right now seeing the action first hand. He assures me that all but a small minority of folks had the means to leave the city. Most of those evacuees that I have spoken with that are in our area shelters have indicated they could have gotten out but they didnt think it would be that bad. If those that were to lazy to leave or to stupid to leave had actually left as ORDERED we would not be having this discussion. Yes there still would have been innocent lives lost but not as many as the rescuers and relief workers would have just had to evacuate those that could not have gotten out.

I see you live in the fine state of Nebraska. Can you imagine if they announced this Friday that a Cat 2 tornado was comming and it was going to be a cat 5 by Sunday when it hit Lincon. Do you think there would be 100,000+ folks that hung arround to see if the weather men were right? Again I realize there were probably ten's of thousands that didnt have the means to leave but we can handle evacuating 10 or 20 thousand of them if we didnt have to also evacuate those that made a concious decision not to leave. Obviously the thousands of looters and rapist and the few snipers didnt help either.
I guess the good news is that the local officials that you state did ask for help stated that they are planning to have Mardi Gras this next year. Now isnt that great news. Mabey the feds will have time to help them plan there little party.

Hey Gooch, I'm in agreement with what you posted...I was not going to comment on this issue but I just can't help it..I was raised in that part of this country and was in New Orleans constantly....I was also there,in MS, when Camille came in 8-17-69. 90% of the people that stayed did so because they wanted to...As my Dad use to tell me, walking isn't crowded and believe me some people "walked away" from Camille...I'm really tired of hearing how the people have been mistreated....It just isn't true......Suck it up, establish a plan,stick with it & rebuild....Then, if you think you would be better off, leave. That is exactly what we did.....

On the issue of Mardi Gras, I didn't miss a single Mardi Gras until we left and it was great..You could walk in anyone's home in the French Quarter and get a meal and then go see the action....How things have changed in the past 36 years. I tell my family now that if they feel they would like to go to NO go with a group & have a concealed weapon permit. Katrina did not cause the problems in New Orleans.

I feel some of the people that have posted about this issue have done so in good faith but do not have a clue as to what is really going on.

[Roberta]

Watching Washington Week on PBS Friday night, it was stated that New Orleans actually did a good job of evacuating its citizens since they estimate 80% of the populace did in fact leave. Most evac plans for any major metropolitan area only counts on 60% evacuation.
People don't leave for a whole lot of reasons, with lack of transportation and nowhere to go being the two largest.
The mayor may have been able to load a few folks up on the buses, but he really didn't have any place to send them.
The whole thing is an abysmal mess that makes me wonder what in blue hell the govermnement has done with the billions of dollars spent after 9/11. From my point of view, we the people have a lot more hassles in our lives,; there even more overpaid bureaucrats living off the rest of us; and the terrorists have just gotten a perfect bit of info on how inept our federal, state and local govermnmets are in response to calamity. - Roberta

[SkyChimp]

Looks like Mayor Nagin is also guilty of turning down an offer by Amtrak to use its trains, free of charge, to assist in the evacuation of the city. An Amtrak official on the news stated Nagin told him "it wasn't necessary." Amtrak moved its trains out of New Orleans empty.