Open Letter To The Times Picayune

Referencing this section of your paper's open letter to Bush:

"Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome."

I emphatically disagree.

There are numerous school buses flooded -- photo here.

These school buses and the RTA's 364 city buses could have and should have been used to evacuate people out of New Orleans instead of herding them into the Superdome where there were inadequate provisions.

Mayor Nagin did not follow his city's own emergency plan.

Section V
D. Regional Transit Authority
Supply transportation as needed in accordance with the current Standard Operating Procedures

It was Nagin's responsibility to implement this plan.

Section V
A. Mayor
Initiate the evacuation.
Retain overall control of all evacuation procedures via EOC operations.

Governor Blanco should have deployed the Louisiana Guard BEFORE Katrina made landfall. She did not.

It was Blanco's responsibility to deploy the troops to bring in initial supplies of food and water.

If New Orleans was indeed accessible as your "open letter" claims, Blanco should have sent them in with buses, food, water, gas -- "no excuses should have been voiced".

"Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency." Link

If The Times-Picayune is going to assign blame, begin by looking in your own back yard.