Images of the flooded yellow school buses juxtaposed against the
despair at the Superdome and the Convention Center will long haunt the city.
Add these buses to the tens of thousands of private cars
abandoned throughout the city and you'll see there was plenty of
transport available to take anyone out who wanted to leave.
What about the RTA? RTA buses were used to shuttle citizens from their homes to the Superdome before the storm. 200 of these RTA buses were parked at the Poland
Street wharf. High and dry these buses could have been used but weren't because the city thought they too had been flooded.
Without any transport out of town, people crowded onto the high ground. Others were left stranded on interstate overpasses. Authorities at the Superdome directed latecomers to head for the Convention Center but FEMA didn't get the word. Supplies and tempers ran short.
So Mayor Nagin requested buses as his number one priority. He asked Governor. Blanco who in turn requested buses from Michael Brown. She made her first request on Monday after landfall. She asked for 500 adding that she might need 5,000. He agreed but did not act. No buses arrived Tuesday. On Tuesday Blanco asked again and he agreed again. No buses Wednesday either. Eventually he did request the DOT send buses to New Orleans, but not until 1:45 am on Wednesday. When questioned by the Senate he couldn't explain the delay.
By Wednesday, Blanco was fit to be tied. She repeated her request to Andy Card and to President Bush. She ordered state DOTD to round up buses. State and federal buses began arriving on Thursday.
In all 2,000 buses participated in the evacuation of New Orleans including the one bus commandeered (stolen) by a resident of Fischer Project and used to transport 50 residents to Houston where they were the first to arrive at the AstroDome. Not having the proper forms to request a driver, he drove it himself.
Now some of the flooded buses are for sale on eBay.
If you come to understand just how NO government is organized with the
Mayor responsible for the emergency plan and an elected School Board
responsible to the State in control of the buses you begin
to understand the disconnect. Advanced planning can overcome lots of
obstacles like these but there was no advanced planning for evacuation
other than by car. Municiple transit buses operated by the RTA, which
does report to the Mayor, were used to pick people up and deliver them
to the Superdome.