More of the Same from Mayor Nagin

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin today announced the details of his new disaster-preparedness plan. After hearing of it and reading it, I can only say that it is laughable. According to CNN.com "'Read my lips: This is a plan for getting people out of the city. There is no shelter of last resort.'" This should come as no comfort to any thinking individual who has decided to take up residence in New Orleans. Evacuation was the plan pre-Hurricane. The problem was not with the plan, but with the implementation.

An evacuation would be ordered at least 30 hours before landfall of any hurricane of Category 2 strength or higher, with a curfew imposed after the evacuation, Nagin said.

The 30 hour figure is only slightly less than the amount of time between when President Bush declared a state of emergency and when Katrina made landfall. However, previously Mayor Nagin failed to take the threat seriously and did not issue a mandatory evacuation until it was far too late, resulting in the over-crowded Highways which we all saw on the news. Thus, this appears to be a step in the right direction...but it is not. According to Nagin, no one will be forced to leave their home. Thus, the evacuation is again only a suggestion, not a mandate.

People would be encouraged to take responsibility for their own evacuation plan, with only about 10,000 residents expected to need help from the city, Nagin said.

Amtrak trains, public transit and school buses would be used to evacuate people who can't drive themselves out of the city, he said.

Because the population of the city has declined so dramatically since Katrina, there are far fewer residents who require assistance in evacuating. Hopefully that translates into making it easier for Mayor Nagin to pick up the phone and initiate the school-bus evacuation. After all, utilizing the city's school buses to evacuate the needy was the plan heading into Katrina, but again failed due to implementation.

All-in-all, the plan seems very similar, almost identical to the plan that "failed" last year. However, it should be recognized that the plan did not fail, but rather it was a failure of the Mayor to implement the plan that led to the catastrophic situations following the storm. In fact, that the plan hasn't been changed should be testament to it's validity, and thus testament to Mayor Nagin's invalidity. It's more of the same, and I don't know why the residents of the city are standing for it.

Cross Posted at The Gentle Cricket

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