Transcript: Mayor Nagin vs. Tim Russert (Meet the Press)

[nelms]

From Meet the Press this past Sunday (Because of the length, I only pasted in the 2nd half of the transcript below, which I thought was the most interesting. The entire transcript is in the link below).

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46271

RUSSERT: Many people point, Mr. Mayor, that on Friday before the hurricane, President Bush declared an impending disaster. And The Houston Chronicle wrote it this way. "[Mayor Nagin's] mandatory evacuation order was issued 20 hours before the storm struck the Louisiana coast, less than half the time researchers determined would be needed to get everyone out. City officials had 550 municipal buses and hundreds of additional school buses at their disposal but made no plans to use them to get people out of New Orleans before the storm, said Chester Wilmot, a civil engineering professor at Louisiana State University and an expert in transportation planning, who helped the city put together its evacuation plan." And we've all see this photograph of these submerged school buses. Why did you not declare, order, a mandatory evacuation on Friday, when the president declared an emergency, and have utilized those buses to get people out?

MAYOR NAGIN: You know, Tim, that's one of the things that will be debated. There has never been a catastrophe in the history of New Orleans like this. There has never been any Category 5 storm of this magnitude that has hit New Orleans directly. We did the things that we thought were best based upon the information that we had. Sure, here was lots of buses out there. But guess what? You can't find drivers that would stay behind with a Category 5 hurricane, you know, pending down on New Orleans. We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome. We barely had enough drivers for that. So sure, we had the assets, but the drivers just weren't available.

RUSSERT: But, Mr. Mayor, if you read the city of New Orleans' comprehensive emergency plan-- and I've read it and I'll show it to you and our viewers--it says very clearly, "Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the mayor of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life-saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedure as needed. Approximately 100,000 citizens of New Orleans do not have means of personal transportation."

It was your responsibility. Where was the planning? Where was the preparation? Where was the execution?

MAYOR NAGIN: The planning was always in getting people to higher ground, getting them to safety. That's what we meant by evacuation. Get them out of their homes, which--most people are under sea level. Get them to a higher ground and then depending upon our state and federal officials to move them out of harm's way after the storm has hit.

RUSSERT: But in July of this year, one month before the hurricane, you cut a public service announcement which said, in effect, "You are on your own." And you have said repeatedly that you never thought an evacuation plan would work. Which is true: whether you would exercise your obligation and duty as mayor or that--and evacuate people, or you believe people were on their own?

MAYOR NAGIN: Well, Tim, you know, we basically wove this incredible tightrope as it is. We were in a position of trying to encourage as many people as possible to leave because we weren't comfortable that we had the resources to move them out of our city. Keep in mind: normal evacuations, we get about 60 percent of the people out of the city of New Orleans. This time we got 80 percent out. We encouraged people to buddy up, churches to take senior citizens and move them to safety, and a lot of them did. And then we would deal with the remaining people that couldn't or wouldn't leave and try and get them to higher ground until safety came.

RUSSERT: Amtrak said they offered to remove people from the city of New Orleans on Saturday night and that the city of New Orleans declined.

MAYOR NAGIN: I don't know where that's coming from. Amtrak never contacted me to make that offer. As a matter of fact, we checked the Amtrak lines for availability, and every available train was booked, as far as the report that I got, through September. So I'd like to see that report.

RUSSERT: They said they were moving equipment out of New Orleans in order to protect it and offered to take evacuees with them.

MAYOR NAGIN: I have never gotten that call, Tim, and I would love to have had that call. But it never happened.

RUSSERT: Since 2002, the federal government has given New Orleans $18 million to plan and prepare for events like this. How was that money spent?

MAYOR NAGIN: It's my understanding that most of the money--I've only been in office about three years. So we've mainly used most of the money that we get from the federal government to try and deal with levee protection and the coordination of getting people to safety. That's primarily what we use the money for.

RUSSERT: The Superdome was established as a safe haven for people who could not evacuate the city to go to. Why wasn't there water and food and cots and security in place at the Superdome from day one? Couldn't you as mayor have guaranteed that?

MAYOR NAGIN: Well, we put in place the resources that we had to provide security. There was running water at the time. There was backup systems. There was food. We encouraged every resident that was coming to the Superdome to at least have perishable food to last them about two to three days and also to have water to last them about that time. Keep in mind, we always assume that after two to three days the cavalry will be coming.

RUSSERT: How would you grade the president's performance thus far, A through F?

MAYOR NAGIN: How would I rate it?

RUSSERT: Yes.

MAYOR NAGIN: Oh, I don't want to get into that, Tim. I mean, I will tell you this: I think the president, for some reason, probably did not understand the full magnitude of this catastrophe on the front end. I think he was probably getting advice from some of his key advisers or some low-level folk that had been on the ground that this was serious, but not as serious as it ended up being. My interactions with the president is, anytime I talked with him and gave him what the real deal was and gave him the truth, he acted and he made things happen.

RUSSERT: How about the governor?

MAYOR NAGIN: Well, you know, I don't know about that one. We fought and held that city together with only 200 state National Guard. That was it. We did not get a lot of other support for three or four days of pure hell on Earth. There were resources that were sitting in other parishes. I just don't know. I mean, and then when a group did come down to review what was happening in New Orleans, it was a big media event. It was followed with cameras and with AP reporters, a little helicopter flyover, and then they had a press conference and it was gone. So I don't have much else to say about that.

RUSSERT: It sounds like you don't think the governor has done a very good job.

MAYOR NAGIN: I think there was an incredible breakdown of coordination, of resources, and decisions were made to move resources and to not move resources that just don't make sense to me. And then there was this incredible dance between the governor and the president about who had final authority, whether this was going to be federalized, who was going to be in charge at the end of the day, and I just don't appreciate that kind of stuff when people were dying in my city.

MAYOR NAGIN: New Orleanians, and I will be the leader of that effort, come heck or high water. There are people right now that are planning to circumvent that, and I know it. They're building tent cities and, you know, trailer parks in other parts of the state to basically deal with political issues, to try and get voters back in the state, if you can believe that. They're also trying to hire people, you know, while I'm trying to take care of my family and do those other things. But it won't work, because New Orleanians are the only ones that can rebuild. And then there's this whole debate and discussion about all of this money that's coming down: What percent should go to New Orleans or other cities in Louisiana affected even more because they are housing the survivors of New Orleans? Should we just write New Orleans off? I don't care what they do. We're going to rebuild New Orleans and we're going to make sure that we have the resources to get the job done.

RUSSERT: Mr. Mayor, we thank you very much for joining us.

MAYOR NAGIN: Thank you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

First of all, it was good seeing Russert ask just as many hard questions of Nagin as he did Chertoff. If you actually watched it on TV, the could see where Russert had a look of frustration on many of Nagin's answers. One thing about Russert is that he's an equal opportunity a$$ kicker. I've seen him take on Cheney and then the following week just totally dismantle Howard Dean.

[chomerics]

There were some interesting things revealed in the interview.

1) Evacuation consisted of bringing prople to the Superdome, not out of the city.

MAYOR NAGIN: The planning was always in getting people to higher ground, getting them to safety. That's what we meant by evacuation. Get them out of their homes, which--most people are under sea level. Get them to a higher ground and then depending upon our state and federal officials to move them out of harm's way after the storm has hit.

2) THere were not enough resources to utilize all of the Buses.

MAYOR NAGIN: You know, Tim, that's one of the things that will be debated. There has never been a catastrophe in the history of New Orleans like this. There has never been any Category 5 storm of this magnitude that has hit New Orleans directly. We did the things that we thought were best based upon the information that we had. Sure, here was lots of buses out there. But guess what? You can't find drivers that would stay behind with a Category 5 hurricane, you know, pending down on New Orleans. We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome. We barely had enough drivers for that. So sure, we had the assets, but the drivers just weren't available.

3) On the burocracy, and the governer/president.

I think there was an incredible breakdown of coordination, of resources, and decisions were made to move resources and to not move resources that just don't make sense to me. And then there was this incredible dance between the governor and the president about who had final authority, whether this was going to be federalized, who was going to be in charge at the end of the day, and I just don't appreciate that kind of stuff when people were dying in my city.

THere were a few others. Hopefully now, people will stop using the same excuses and read the interview. I saw it on Sunday, pretty good stuff. Thanks for posting it.

[nelms]

THere were not enough resources to utilize all of the Buses.

chom - you are missing the point. It was the responsiblity of the Mayor to make sure there were enough drivers for those buses. Why weren't there enough resources? It was the Mayor's and city's own emergency plan that called for the use of those buses. That being said, why did he not ensure there were enough drivers. This is inexcusable.

[codeorama]

chom - you are missing the point. It was the responsiblity of the Mayor to make sure there were enough drivers for those buses. Why weren't there enough resources? It was the Mayor's and city's own emergency plan that called for the use of those buses. That being said, why did he not ensure there were enough drivers. This is inexcusable.

Let me answer that... Because the school bus drivers left town.

When we have hurricane scares, we recruit bus drivers (we can't force them to drive) and we have to be finished in time to let them evacuate themselves.

I can say for sure, if you don't evacuate early enough, you WON"T have bus drivers, they are not hero's, they have a family to worry about as well.

[Kilmer17]

Which is precicely why this was such a failure. Nagin admits that his own plan was flawed from the start.

How on earth do you have a plan that needs bus drivers without making sure you can actually have them available.

I guess Bush should have gotten his CDL license and hopped in the front seat on one of em.

[nelms]

Let me answer that... Because the school bus drivers left town.

When we have hurricane scares, we recruit bus drivers (we can't force them to drive) and we have to be finished in time to let them evacuate themselves.

I can say for sure, if you don't evacuate early enough, you WON"T have bus drivers, they are not hero's, they have a family to worry about as well.

That's my whole point. Why have a plan that calls for drivers that are not going to be held accountable? I wouldn't expect school bus drivers to abandon their families, they're going to want to evacuat their families and I have no problem with that. But, the city and mayor's plan should have called for police or military personnel (National Guard) to be on duty to perform this task. This plan makes no sense at all if you don't have the resources to carry it out. And who is at fault for not having the resources?

[Larry]

I thought I'd seen other people, on this board, say that NO had studied using busses, and had rejected that plan, for several reasons, including that there was no place to evacuate people to, and that, because every road out of town was in "all lanes are outbound" mode, all bus trips would have to be one-way.

Supposedly, that's why they decided to use the Superdome, instead: Busses can go round trip, and it's, in theory, a solid structure. (Supposedly, they knew the roof might fail and the field might flood, but they figured the upper levels would be above water, and sheltered, even if those things occurred.)

(Now, as to supplies, supposedly the plan was to lay in enough supplies for "special needs" people (handicapped, etc.), but that "normal" people were supposed to BYOB, and they were on their own. And, aparantly, they didn't plan on enough security.)

(Although, if bussing people out of town wasn't part of the current plan, you'd think Da Mayor would've said so. Shurely he knows a lot of people are pointing fingers at him, and using that photo as their ammo. It's not like he didn't know the question was comming.)

[Thiebear]

If you have an emergency evacuation plan that specifically says: Dont tell the Civilians where to go as it will change... Your wrong.

If you have an emergency evacuation plan that YOU DO NOT follow, don't be surprised if it doesnt work.

Call Every Minister of ever Church and have them get ever one of those guys that push those plates out there.. Get every Emergency personnel person and have them drive a bus.. Its not an 18 wheeler.. its a bus... *GET volunteers by Name with contact numbers and with EACH Hurricane that is named near Florida... Call them.

Update the Roster for those that dont return the call...

Don't say NO to the water and Food going to the Superdome.. EVER! just in case you might need it.. Didnt cost you anything to put it there....

Attention to Detail is all it would have taken.. there would still have been 20% of the people there but it would have been on them...

[chomerics]

chom - you are missing the point. It was the responsiblity of the Mayor to make sure there were enough drivers for those buses. Why weren't there enough resources? It was the Mayor's and city's own emergency plan that called for the use of those buses. That being said, why did he not ensure there were enough drivers. This is inexcusable.

Nelms, the evacuation worked beter then expecd. They were not supposed to evacuate out of the city, only out of the flood plain, or the "bowl" and into the S'dome. This is what the evacuation plan was, as for the resources, there were not many, but with that being said, their evacuation was better then FEMA thought it was going to be. During Pam, there were estimated only 60% off the people would be evacuater, and they got up to 80%. If you think that aan increase of 20% over what they though was possible is inexcusable, then you really aren't looking at the issues.

[nelms]

Nelms, the evacuation worked beter then exped. They were not supposed to evacuate out of the city, only our of the flood plain, or the "bowl" and into the S'dome. This is what the evacuation plan was, as for the resources, there were not many, but with that being said, theyr evacuation was better then FEMA thought it was going to be. During Pam, there were estimated only 60% off the people would be evacuater, and they got up to 80%. If you think that aan increase of 20% over what they though was possible is inexcusable, then you really aren't looking at the issues.

Huh? So what you are saying is that according to their evacuation plan, 60% was an acceptable number and by acheiving 80% they should be commended. I'm not sure that is what the evacuation plan actually states, but if it does, can we just tell all the folks that were left behind to just shut up because the Mayor and City's plan said they should be grateful that at least 80% got out. I cannot believe I am actaully responding to this.

[chomerics]

If you have an emergency evacuation plan that specifically says: Dont tell the Civilians where to go as it will change... Your wrong.

If you have an emergency evacuation plan that YOU DO NOT follow, don't be surprised if it doesnt work.

Call Every Minister of ever Church and have them get ever one of those guys that push those plates out there.. Get every Emergency personnel person and have them drive a bus.. Its not an 18 wheeler.. its a bus... *GET volunteers by Name with contact numbers and with EACH Hurricane that is named near Florida... Call them.

Update the Roster for those that dont return the call...

Bear, there was nowhere to put the people. THe evacuation plan you are referring to was an evacuation out of the bowl to a safe shelter, ie. the S'dome. He says he wishes he did things differently, but what you are asking for is not possible, an evacuation of over 100,000 people out of the city. It is the cities responsibility to get the people to shelter, they did this.

Don't say NO to the water and Food going to the Superdome.. EVER! just in case you might need it.. Didnt cost you anything to put it there....

THere were 70,000 liters of water and 43,000 MREs at the S'dome on Monday, enough to last two days, not five. They were waiting to be evacuated by the calvary, one which they were told every day was arriving, which never did.

Attention to Detail is all it would have taken.. there would still have been 20% of the people there but it would have been on them...

That is what was left there Bear.

[chomerics]

Huh? So what you are saying is that according to their evacuation plan, 60% was an acceptable number and by acheiving 80% they should be commended. I'm not sure that is what the evacuation plan actually states, but if it does, can we just tell all the folks that were left behind to just shut up because the Mayor and City's plan said they should be grateful that at least 80% got out. I cannot believe I am actaully responding to this.

Have you read the Hurricane Pam exercize? The conclusion was that there would be 40% of the people who would not evacuate, up to 300,000. The exercize stated that the S'dome would be used as a shelter of last resort, and as many people should go there as possible.

Aftermath

From the simulation, officials estimate that a storm like Hurricane Pam would:

* cause flooding that would leave 300,000 people trapped in New Orleans, many of whom would not have private transportation for evacuation;

* send evacuees to 1,000 shelters, which would likely remain open for 100 days;

* require the transfer of patients from hospitals in harm’s way to hospitals in other parts of the state;

* trigger outbreaks of tetanus, influenza, and other diseases likely to be present after a storm;

* create 30 million cubic yards of debris and 237,000 cubic yards of household hazardous waste.

As a result of the Hurricane Pam Exercise, agencies are in the process of applying what they learned to their emergency response plans. Those changes include:

* assisting people without transportation – the American Red Cross is developing a program that would ask private citizens to collect people at area churches and transport them.

* identifying more than 700 shelters and planning the locations for the remaining sites.

* outlining patient movement details and determining how to set in motion existing immunization plans.

* establishing a command structure that would employ up to 800 searchers.

* identifying existing landfills capable of accepting hazardous waste and outlining debris removal plans.

One important result of the exercise was the understanding among agencies at all levels of the seriousness of such an event. “A White House staffer was briefed on the exercise,” said van Heerden. “There is now a far greater awareness in the federal government about the consequences of storm surges.”

source

They evacuated many more then they even thought they could. Did they make mistakes? Sure, but your initial post lambasted the mayor for not having the resources to carryo ut the plan, he did.

What I said was he did not have a plan to evacuate people with over 350 buses, he did not have the resources. When this is pointed out to you, again you blame the city. You do realize that you are blaming and criticizing them for not following a plan that did not exist, don't you?

[nelms]

Have you read the Hurricane Pam exercize? The conclusion was that there would be 40% of the people who would not evacuate, up to 300,000. The exercize stated that the S'dome would be used as a shelter of last resort, and as many people should go there as possible.

source

They evacuated many more then they even thought they could. Did they make mistakes? Sure, but your initial post lambasted the mayor for not having the resources to carryo ut the plan, he did.

What I said was he did not have a plan to evacuate people with over 350 buses, he did not have the resources. When this is pointed out to you, again you blame the city. You do realize that you are blaming and criticizing them for not following a plan that did not exist, don't you?

You can talk about the Hurricane Pam exercize all you want. It has nothing to do with the responsibility and accountablility of the Mayor and the city of New Orleans. Did you read past this question by Russert:

But, Mr. Mayor, if you read the city of New Orleans' comprehensive emergency plan-- and I've read it and I'll show it to you and our viewers--it says very clearly, "Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the mayor of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life-saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedure as needed. Approximately 100,000 citizens of New Orleans do not have means of personal transportation."

It was your responsibility. Where was the planning? Where was the preparation? Where was the execution?

He failed to carry our his own plan, as Russert points out. He made absolutely ZERO "special arrangements to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves". He was completely unprepared to provide the resources necessary to assist in the evacuation. He failed miserably, as did the agencies at the state and federal levels.

[chomerics]

You can talk about the Hurricane Pam exercize all you want. It has nothing to do with the responsibility and accountablility of the Mayor and the city of New Orleans. Did you read past this question by Russert:

But, Mr. Mayor, if you read the city of New Orleans' comprehensive emergency plan-- and I've read it and I'll show it to you and our viewers--it says very clearly, "Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the mayor of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life-saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedure as needed. Approximately 100,000 citizens of New Orleans do not have means of personal transportation."

It was your responsibility. Where was the planning? Where was the preparation? Where was the execution?

No, I posted his answer, and you failed to look at it :hammer:

Re-read my FIRST POST!!!! His answer to the question :doh:

MAYOR NAGIN: The planning was always in getting people to higher ground, getting them to safety. That's what we meant by evacuation. Get them out of their homes, which--most people are under sea level. Get them to a higher ground and then depending upon our state and federal officials to move them out of harm's way after the storm has hit.

This was posted previously, yet you completely ignore the post, then claim the "question Russert asks" is proof

He failed to carry our his own plan, as Russert points out. He made absolutely ZERO "special arrangements to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves". He was completely unprepared to provide the resources necessary to assist in the evacuation. He failed miserably, as did the agencies at the state and federal levels.

Seeing how you were the one who started this thread and listed the interview, I assumed you read it. How wrong of me :doh:

He talks about it here.

We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome. We barely had enough drivers for that. So sure, we had the assets, but the drivers just weren't available.

He did in fact set up 12 locations throughout the city to shuttle people to the S'dome. He USED busses on Saturday, and Sunday.

Man, you really should go back and read the article, after all, you were the one who posted it :doh:

[nelms]

We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome. We barely had enough drivers for that. So sure, we had the assets, but the drivers just weren't available.

WTF? And you believe this is a legitimate excuse by the Mayor? Why did they "BARELY GOT ENOUGH DRIVERS TO MOVE PEOPLE ON SUNDAY"?

No one is debating that they didn't have enough drivers. BUT WHY? WHY didn't the Mayor have enough RESOURCES? WHY were those buses left sitting there, flooded, when they could have helped in the evacuation. WHY?

BECAUSE THE MAYOR FAILED to provide the necessary PEOPLE resources to help in the evacuation. Bush owned up to his mistakes. It's time for the Mayor and Governor Blanco to own up to theirs. WHY is it so difficult for you to admit that this Mayor dropped the ball big time.

[Mad Mike]

There were some interesting things revealed in the interview.

1) Evacuation consisted of bringing prople to the Superdome, not out of the city.

2) THere were not enough resources to utilize all of the Buses.

3) On the burocracy, and the governer/president.

THere were a few others. Hopefully now, people will stop using the same excuses and read the interview. I saw it on Sunday, pretty good stuff. Thanks for posting it.

You forgot one...

My interactions with the president is, anytime I talked with him and gave him what the real deal was and gave him the truth, he acted and he made things happen.

[chomerics]

We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome. We barely had enough drivers for that. So sure, we had the assets, but the drivers just weren't available.

WTF? And you believe this is a legitimate excuse by the Mayor? Why did they "BARELY GOT ENOUGH DRIVERS TO MOVE PEOPLE ON SUNDAY"?

Why do you think Mr. Wizzard. It doesn't take much to read through a thread and see what other posters posted. This is the SECOND TIME you brought up a question which has already been discussed. Read Code's post above.

They evacuated as many people as they could, and in fact they got out a lot more then they thought they would. People do not leave, that is a fact. There are people who STILL want to stay in their houses, you can't evacuate everyone. What you can do is provide evacuation for the people who want to leave, but don't have the means. This is what he did. How do you think 26,000 people got to the Superdome on Sunday? Many were bused by Nagin.

No one is debating that they didn't have enough drivers. BUT WHY? WHY didn't the Mayor have enough RESOURCES? WHY were those buses left sitting there, flooded, when they could have helped in the evacuation. WHY?

Evacuate to where? They were supposed to evacuate to the Superdome!!!! This was the plan!!! THey ran shuttles to get people to the Superdome, they in fact got 80% of the people out of NO, more then they even thought they could. Would it have been nice to get the people away from NO? yes, but where do you put 100,000 people??? That's why the evacuation plan, which was followed, was to get people to high ground. You seem to have a major disconnect from either reality or comprehension. This is your thread, and your topic, yet you continue to ignore the material you posted

BECAUSE THE MAYOR FAILED to provide the necessary PEOPLE resources to help in the evacuation. Bush owned up to his mistakes. It's time for the Mayor and Governor Blanco to own up to theirs. WHY is it so difficult for you to admit that this Mayor dropped the ball big time.

How is it the mayor's responsibility to get people OUT of the city? He has to protect people inside the city, and he failed there, but one of the reasons he failed is because everyone else dropped the ball. Maybe, just maybe in the future, you should actually READ the articles you post, then you won't end up looking like such a fool. :doh:

[chomerics]

You forgot one...

My interactions with the president is, anytime I talked with him and gave him what the real deal was and gave him the truth, he acted and he made things happen.

Yep, on Friday :doh:

[nelms]

How is it the mayor's responsibility to get people OUT of the city? He has to protect people inside the city, and he failed there, but one of the reasons he failed is because everyone else dropped the ball. Maybe, just maybe in the future, you should actually READ the articles you post, then you won't end up looking like such a fool. :doh:

Fool? Who's the fool, jacka$$. You are a freakin' idiot if you don't think it was the Mayor's repsonsibility to evacuate the city. It was in the emergency plan that Russert quotes. Are you that freakin' dense? Did you actually read the transcript? And yes, there were people that decided to stay. That was their choice. But there are were so many that were stranded and the Mayor did NOTHING but point fingers at everyone else. Get your head out of your a$$ and stop defending the indefensible.

[chomerics]

Fool? Who's the fool, jacka$$. You are a freakin' idiot if you don't think it was the Mayor's repsonsibility to evacuate the city. It was in the emergency plan that Russert quotes. Are you that freakin' dense? Did you actually read the transcript? And yes, there were people that decided to stay. That was their choice. But there are were so many that were stranded and the Mayor did NOTHING but point fingers at everyone else.

EVACUATE the city to HIGH GROUND. Read the transcript, it is right in there. You never ONCE, said you think he's lying, but you imply it when your talking points have disolved into a black hole. Then you resort to personal attacks, things which I have already said you should not do. You say the Mayor did nothing, yet on the article YOU posted stated that he got 80% of the people out of NO when only 60% were expected to evacuate. Your idle and petty rants hold no water when held up against the facts. Facts which you posted BTW, and you completely ignore, but FACTS which completely dissolve any shred of an argument you had. :doh:

[nelms]

EVACUATE the city to HIGH GROUND. Read the transcript, it is right in there. You never ONCE, said you think he's lying, but you imply it when your talking points have disolved into a black hole. Then you resort to personal attacks, things which I have already said you should not do. You say the Mayor did nothing, yet on the article YOU posted stated that he got 80% of the people out of NO when only 60% were expected to evacuate. Your idle and petty rants hold no water when held up against the facts. Facts which you posted BTW, and you completely ignore, but FACTS which completely dissolve any shred of an argument you had. :doh:

You call me a FOOL and then accuse me of making personal attacks. Whatever junior.

Who ever said that the Mayor's EXCUSES in this interview were FACTS. He totally absolves himself of responsiblity, even when Tim Russert lays out his own emergency evacuation plan, which he failed to implement.

[chomerics]

Who ever said that the Mayor's EXCUSES in this interview were FACTS. He totally absolves himself of responsiblity, even when Tim Russert lays out his own emergency evacuation plan, which he failed to implement.

YOU were the one that posted this interview, YOU were the one who started this thread, yet YOU never said you think the mayor is lying until I point this out to you. YOU have been backed into a wall, because the mayor discusses the exact things you were talking about, thisng which you NEVER bothered to read, but instead of quietly admitting you were wrong, you resort to petty rants and BS.

If you read the report the first time, and said I think the mayor is lying, then you would have half a leg to stand on, but no, you have to dig deeper, and come out with things which have already been discussed in the exact same thread 10 posts earlier. You see, if you want to survive here, and you want to get your point across, then you have to do so respectfully, and you have done nothing like that. Instead of admitting you were wrong, or that things you say can offend somebody, you dodge questions and fling insults. Well, I don't think you will be around much longer unless you change your game. It is not only tiresome, but it's a waste of bandwith.

[codeorama]

Here's what's going on right now in my city.

We have a storm approaching us.

We are putting bus drivers on call in case we need them.

We have made a decision that based on the current info, Ophelia is not going to affect us any more than 30mph winds and rain, we will meet again today to see if that has changed.

As of now, 1 shelter has been opened for those living in flood zones, but schools have not been cancelled.

Note, The president of the US has NOT been involved in our planning, nor has FEMA or any other government agency. They never are.

[chomerics]

Here's what's going on right now in my city.

We have a storm approaching us.

We are putting bus drivers on call in case we need them.

We have made a decision that based on the current info, Ophelia is not going to affect us any more than 30mph winds and rain, we will meet again today to see if that has changed.

As of now, 1 shelter has been opened for those living in flood zones, but schools have not been cancelled.

Note, The president of the US has NOT been involved in our planning, nor has FEMA or any other government agency. They never are.

Code, you don't live in a city with half a million people, with up to 200,000 without access to a car, they live below sea level and there is a threat for the whole city to flood, and trap the water. It is apples and oranges. Also, I will note that he did use buses to round up people for the S'dome.

Nobody is saying the president should have been responsible for evacuating the city, we are saying that he is responsible, along with the state of removing people from the city. This effort didn't get started when it should, and the delay caused people to lose their life, it is unacceptable for troops to arriveon friday, 4 days after the levees droke the damn.

[nelms]

If you read the report the first time, and said I think the mayor is lying, then you would have half a leg to stand on, but no, you have to dig deeper, and come out with things which have already been discussed in the exact same thread 10 posts earlier. You see, if you want to survive here, and you want to get your point across, then you have to do so respectfully, and you have done nothing like that. Instead of admitting you were wrong, or that things you say can offend somebody, you dodge questions and fling insults. Well, I don't think you will be around much longer unless you change your game. It is not only tiresome, but it's a waste of bandwith.

LOL! You take the cake. You call me a FOOL and then accuse me of flinging insults. I'm done with your BS, junior.