Mayor to feds: 'Get off your asses. I need 500 buses man.'  


NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.

I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.

I've got 15,000 to 20,000 people over at the convention center. It's bursting at the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines Parish. ... We don't have anything, and we're sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines Parish.

It's awful down here, man.

Above quote from transcript of radio interview with Nagin




Here's half those buses fooknut....

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I have riden the bus for 8 years and the biggets one only hold 34 if you can get everyone to sit two to a seat. In the footage there seemed to be alot of over weight people over there. Did you ride the short bus to school or something?   Most full-size school buses that I'm familiar with hold 66 passengers plus the driver. In an emergency situation such as New Orleans I'm sure you could find room to squeeze more people in there. In my experience, a full sized bus is supposed to hold about 50, give or take.  More would be possible, but there would be a major risk of overcrowding, not to mention the difficulty and hazards that would be presented if the bus had to be evacuated for any reason.

Better not overload that bus!  We may have to evacuate everyone in a hurry!  Oh wait, the bus IS the evacuation and there is a 135 MPH HURRICANE COMING!

I bet you are one of those types of people.  "Follow the rules and nobody gets hurt", well sometimes it is best to just use your head and just do what must be done.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I have riden the bus for 8 years and the biggets one only hold 34 if you can get everyone to sit two to a seat. In the footage there seemed to be alot of over weight people over there. Did you ride the short bus to school or something?   Most full-size school buses that I'm familiar with hold 66 passengers plus the driver. In an emergency situation such as New Orleans I'm sure you could find room to squeeze more people in there. In my experience, a full sized bus is supposed to hold about 50, give or take.  More would be possible, but there would be a major risk of overcrowding, not to mention the difficulty and hazards that would be presented if the bus had to be evacuated for any reason.   Better not overload that bus!  We may have to evacuate everyone in a hurry!  Oh wait, the bus IS the evacuation and there is a 135 MPH HURRICANE COMING! I bet you are one of those types of people.  "Follow the rules and nobody gets hurt", well sometimes it is best to just use your head and just do what must be done.

What if I like to put my feet up?  

Quoted: Maybe they tried to use them, only to find out that the people willing to drive them were already gone, or on their way out of the city?

They will use the excuse of "no drivers" if they are asked why the buses sat still. I'm sure they could have found somebody that wanted to evacuate and drive a bus. It's a schoolbus anyway, not a 747, anybody could drive one in an emergency.

Quoted: Quoted: Maybe they tried to use them, only to find out that the people willing to drive them were already gone, or on their way out of the city? They will use the excuse of "no drivers" if they are asked why the buses sat still. I'm sure they could have found somebody that wanted to evacuate and drive a bus. It's a schoolbus anyway, not a 747, anybody could drive one in an emergency.

No it's the law must have a Class B CDL and passenger transport endorsement. That will be their line and they're sticking to it.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Maybe they tried to use them, only to find out that the people willing to drive them were already gone, or on their way out of the city? They will use the excuse of "no drivers" if they are asked why the buses sat still. I'm sure they could have found somebody that wanted to evacuate and drive a bus. It's a schoolbus anyway, not a 747, anybody could drive one in an emergency. No it's the law must have a Class B CDL and passenger transport endorsement. That will be their line and they're sticking to it.

And it's in N.O.'s emergency plan for hurricanes that the city will use buses, so it don't fucking matter what they say.  They had a plan, and a good one at that, and they didn't follow it.

FYI


I spoke to my wife who used to drive a full-size school bus.


The flatfronts with the rear mounted engine have a max capacity of 84 - 85 depending on the rear seat configuration. That's sitting three to a seat.


The 'standards' with the front mounted engine have a max capacity of 66 passengers. Since the district she drove for didn't have the front engine buses she couldn't say what the capacity was with 3 per seat.

I ride school buses often chaperoning school kids.  

That's three CHILDREN to a seat.  You can't seat three adults on a seat made for two.  

You can get about 60 high school kids (and/or adults) into a regular front engined school bus (Bluebird, etc).  You can seat about another 10 or so in the aisle, or more standing... in an emergency.

Heck, that 18 yr old kid put 100 on a bus and delivered them safely, and never drove a bus before.

OK, say you only put 60 to a bus.  They had what, 250?  That's 15,000 people!




I'll bet I could get more than half of those started sitting where they are now.

Quoted: "Authorities eventually allowed the renegade passengers inside the dome. But the 18-year-old who ensured their safety could find himself in a world of trouble for stealing the school bus." They should give that kid a medal for using common sense.

Are you kidding? He broke the faith and thought for himself!

He'll be labeled an Uncle Tom for not taking part in the usual group-think and be ostracized by his own people.



Kid has balls, boy! Good for him! The assclown mayor should take a lesson or ten from this kid.

.

Quoted: OK, say you only put 60 to a bus.  They had what, 250?  That's 15,000 people!

And that's for one trip.  They might have gotten two or three trips out of them before the hurricane hit.

Any more on this?

I saw one report that claimed they had close to 600 buses available in the city and another report that there were over 1,000.

GunLvr