I hate to keep hammering this ...
Posted by: McQ
The QandO Blog
Monday, September 12, 2005
....But it's absolutely necessary.
One of the only passable ways in or out of the Superdome and Convention Center area in New Orleans after the the levee breaks tuesday (and perhaps the only obvious one) was via the Crescent City connector into Gretna. So why wasn't it used? Because local Gretna law enforcement officials had locked it down and wouldn't let anyone pass:
<<<
Police from surrounding jurisdictions shut down several access points to one of the only ways out of New Orleans last week, effectively trapping victims of Hurricane Katrina in the flooded and devastated city.
An eyewitness account from two San Francisco paramedics posted on an internet site for Emergency Medical Services specialists says, "Thousands of New Orleaners were prevented and prohibited from self-evacuating the city on foot."
"We shut down the bridge," Arthur Lawson, chief of the City of Gretna Police Department, confirmed to United Press International, adding that his jurisdiction had been "a closed and secure location" since before the storm hit.
"All our people had evacuated and we locked the city down," he said.
The bridge in question—the Crescent City Connection—is the major artery heading west out of New Orleans across the Mississippi River.
Lawson said that once the storm itself had passed Monday, police from Gretna City, Jefferson Parrish and the Louisiana State Crescent City Connection Police Department closed to foot traffic the three access points to the bridge closest to the West Bank of the river.
He added that the small town, which he called "a bedroom community" for the city of New Orleans, would have been overwhelmed by the influx.
"There was no food, water or shelter" in Gretna City, Lawson said. "We did not have the wherewithal to deal with these people.
"If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."
>>>
Now, who should have coordinated with the Gretna authorities to;
A) open this route and
B) pushed in state transportation assets to evacuate those at the Dome and CC?
Hint: Who was it that waited until thursday to "commandeer state school buses?". Who was it that refused to allow the ARC and Salvation Army access to the Dome and CC immediately after the storm hit? Who was it that obviously never coordinated with Gretna authorities even though they announced publicly that people at the Dome and CC should go across the connector to the west side of the city?
Another hint: It ain't "FEMA".
And since we know Mayor Nagin had access to the Dome and CC (he visited the two places earlier in the week but was advised it was too dangerous for him to visit again later in the week), why wasn't he across the connector and coordinating with Gretna authorities instead of doing abusive interviews claiming nothing was being done?
Yup, I certainly do want an investigation. The more I read about this the more I discover that there were a multitude of things both the mayor and the state could have done and should have done which would have mitigated the conditions of those at the Dome and CC and hastened the evacuation by days, not hours.
The State of Louisiana's Disaster plan says the following:
"The Greater New Orleans Metropolitan Area represents a
difficult evacuation problem due to the large population
and its unique layout."
It continues, "The primary means of hurricane evacuation
will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses,
government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by
volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation
for individuals who lack transportation and require
assistance in evacuating."
The first question in any investigation should be directed to both the State and the city and it should be "where were the buses"? Instead of screaming for buses on TV and blaming their absense on the fed, where were yours, Mr. Mayor, Madame Governor?
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