I’ve listened to this interview probably four times already and it is still amazing to me. If you haven’t heard the interview yet, or you’ve only heard the truncated CNN version, or only read excerpts, give it a listen. It really is quite something to hear it as opposed to read about it.
Wow. That’s sobering. Mind if I mirror it?
BTW, regarding what you said a few posts back where NO shut off public transportation and made highway one way before giving the evacuation order, do you have a cite for that? That’s the first I’ve heard that, and I’d like to read more about that aspect, as it might change my current opinions on those who did stayed in the city. Thanks.
(http://livejournal.com/users/giza)
I got that mp3 from elsewhere (I tried to capture it myself but kept just missing it) so please feel free to spread it around. As for the transportation problems, my main source is scyllacat but I’ve read the same thing elsewhere. I’ll see if I can dig up an article.
(http://livejournal.com/users/jlick)
Looks like scyllacat is a resident of NO and is reporting it first hand, so that’s good enough for me.
Curiously enough, it seems that she’s both a fur and knows Robert Aspirin.
(http://livejournal.com/users/giza)
OK, here’s some cites:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/nationworld/articles/1699001.html
“Making matters worse, at least 100,000 people in the city lack the transportation to get out of town. Nagin said the Superdome could be used as a shelter of last resort for people who have no cars, with city bus pickup points around New Orleans.”
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1448338.htm
“New Orleans is a tourism city and so there are still a number of tourists who couldn’t get out, don’t have cars and couldn’t get flights out because a lot of flights were cancelled [sic] who are in hotels and like I said, we have a significant poor population that don’t have cars so they’re unable to get out too, so I’d say there are at least 150,000-200,000 people if not more in New Orleans proper who are still here.”
http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBRM3I6YCE.html
“Thousands in New Orleans – the poor, the disabled, the homeless and the stranded tourists – with no way out of town, crowded into the Superdome, which can provide refuge for perhaps 70,000 who may have to remain there five or more days. The domed stadium cannot accommodate all of the city’s 100,000 residents without transportation who either will seek safety in other shelters or ride out Katrina’s ferocious winds and flooding at home.”
(The 70k capacity of the Superdome conflicts with other reports that they allowed in only around 25k.)
That’s just a sampling from doing an advanced search of news.google.com for ‘katrina poor transportation “new orleans”‘ in the date range August 27-30.
(http://livejournal.com/users/jlick)
She was a NOLA resident, but it’s very possible she won’t go back.
(http://livejournal.com/users/jlick)