Forethought

Jeff Wagner on 620 WTMJ was discussing the Katrina relief effort today, and the one caller said mentioned forethought. This picture shows that there certainly wasn't enough of that. Each one of those buses represent what, 50 people that could have been evacuated prior to the storm? Even more than that with multiple trips? It would have been an enormous cost to do so, and certainly not recommended for every hurricane, but when a category 4 or 5 storm is bearing down on you and your levee walls are only rated at category 3, it may have been justified. Had their been enough forethought to have a plan in place to evacuate the poor and ill to other inland cities.

Another caller who evacuated New Orleans brought up an interesting point. Nothing could really get into New Orleans once the evacuation order was given because the roads going into the city were all made into northbound lanes. When the caller got a little further out, he saw convoys of trucks heading towards the Mississippi coast in prepartion for the repair and relief efforts of a storm that had not even arrived yet. For New Orleans, with only two main roads in and out of town, this may have been the only choice in order to get people out quick. But for a city and a state that has known the vulnerability of the area for years upon years, that's not an excuse.