Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Where were the busses? In Brownie's pocket

This may be old news to some, but it's the most complete and detailed account of what happened to the busses that were supposed to take people from the Superdome to safety.
Peter Pantuso of the American Bus Association said he spent much of the day on Wednesday, Aug. 31, trying to find someone at the Federal Emergency Management Agency who could tell him how many buses were needed for an evacuation, where they should be sent and who was overseeing the effort.

"We never talked directly to FEMA or got a call back from them," Pantuso said.

And in this article, also old news, Gov. Blanco says that Brown refused to let them use school busses for the evacuation because they were not air-conditioned.
On the day of the storm, or perhaps the day after, FEMA turned down the state's suggestion to use school buses because they are not air conditioned, Blanco said Friday in an interview.

Even after levees broke and residents were crowding the Louisiana Superdome, then-FEMA Director Mike Brown was bent on using his own buses to evacuate New Orleans, Blanco said.

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