Road to Nowhere

So a big hoopla is being made about buses that were flooded during Hurricane Katrina, suggesting that these buses should have been used to help evacuate the city.

The first question that comes to my mind is where would these buses go? What city in the country is equipped to house, feed and clothe 3-400,000 people? And whose to say those buses weren't used, and then parked after initial evacuations were completed? In fact, initial reports show that buses were sent out into the city to pick up those with no where else to go.

Of course, in a short amount of time, no one is going to be able to gather up every person in the city. And the eldery and the infirm that did make it to the Superdome or the convention center didn't see much help after the storm from FEMA anyhow.

Unfortunately, one city cannot evacuate itself in only 48 hours, especially without help- help even FEMA Director Michael D. Brown seems to admit that the city needed but did not have:

Brown, a frequent target of New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin's wrath, said Saturday that "the mayor can order an evacuation and try to evacuate the city, but if the mayor does not have the resources to get the poor, elderly, the disabled, those who cannot, out, or if he does not even have police capacity to enforce the mandatory evacuation, to make people leave, then you end up with the kind of situation we have right now in New Orleans."

New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas acknowledged that the city was surprised by the number of refugees left behind, but he said FEMA should have been prepared to assist.

"Everybody shares the blame here," said Thomas. "But when you talk about the mightiest government in the world, that's a ludicrous and lame excuse. You're FEMA, and you're the big dog. And you weren't prepared either."

In Baton Rouge, Blanco acknowledged Saturday: "We did not have enough resources here to do it all. . . . The magnitude is overwhelming."

I'm not trying to suggest that the mayor or the state is exempt in this one. But FEMA and the federal government certainly did not step up when it was needed. When things are going poorly for some, the idea is not to blame those without the resources to help themselves. Being a true leader means seeing those needs and doing all you can to provide for them.

It does not mean eating cake with John McCain and learning to play guitar.

*UPDATE* Lookie here:

Maestri, the chicken little (in a good way) of Louisiana crisis planners, told Maher, "The buses were used, and then brought back to get another load of folks. The problem is that a number of people, particularly in the city of New Orleans, didn't have the resources themselves to be able to leave....The buses were used to get as many people out as we possibly could."