Katrina Coverage

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60 unflooded buses found?

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See the pictures here, which reputedly depicts 60 unflooded school buses at the Algiers Bus Barn at 801 Patterson Ave. The image is from google, and was reportedly taken on Wednesday 8/31, two days after the storm came in; the Superdome wasn't evacuated until Saturday. The route between the bus barn and the Superdome and the Convention Center was apparently open at that time.

Of course, one sticking point is whether these buses were operational or not, and that would require a bit more investigating, such as the testimony of bus drivers.

UPDATE: As with just above everything else about this matter, there's apparently more to this story.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 4th, 2005 at 1:46 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “60 unflooded buses found?”

  1. Myopic Zeal Says:
    October 4th, 2005 at 2:04 pm

    Ray Nagin's Buses Have Been Found!

    Paul at Wizbang has found Ray Nagin's buses on Google Maps. Sixty of them. Unflooded. Less than five miles away.
    Dr. Rusty says this goes beyond incompetence.
    The Anchoress says Nagin should have resigned.
    If you're using Google Ea…

  2. BrStarr Says:
    October 6th, 2005 at 2:21 am

    Well, the poor weren't evacuated from Houston either, a city which only did not see the worst because of luck.

    And Houston had two days more of evacuation.

    So focusing on those buses as some kind of angelic spirits that could fly 100k people away from New Orleans is kinda dumb, don't you think?

    Where were the school buses in Houston?

    We don know that FEMA stopped New Orleans from getting fuel at a crucial time. (Alan Brousard interview)

    Maybe that's a reason why the buses couldn't be used.

    Also remember that the floods started nearly right away. Were the buses to drive through from 3 to 20 feet of flood water?

    According to reports I read, there was 4 feet of water surrounding the Superdome for a couple of days, and after that time going to the Superdome was not the thing to do. It was a place people felt they were going to die in because of the awful neglect of a people that the federal government knew was mostly poor and minority.

  3. Tom T Says:
    October 6th, 2005 at 7:02 am

    - CANAL ST BUS DRIVERS EVACUATED TUESDAY -
    - 170 RTA BUSES HIGH & DRY AT POLAND ST WHARF -

    The Canal Street RTA Bus Yard had a ready crew of bus drivers post-Katrina. They watched the buses flood. Then evacuated to Baton Rouge.

    Per 10/1/05 NOLA quote - from RTA spokesperson - Rosalind Blanco Cook -

    "Although many of RTA’s buses flooded in Katrina, the agency has enough to begin the limited run, Cook said.

    And staffing isn’t a problem, she said. Many bus drivers stayed at RTA’s Canal Street office during the storm and evacuated on the Tuesday after the hurricane for shelter in Baton Rouge, Cook said."

    Meanwhile… 170 buses were parked high and dry at the Poland St Wharf, just a short drive down a dry street from the French Quarter.

    Per 9/12/05 NOLA - quote -

    "Some 150 buses that were moved to the Poland Avenue Wharf in the Lower Ninth Ward appear to have fared well, but about 70 of those vehicles were commandeered by the police and fire departments, the National Guard, and in a few cases by individual citizens who used them to evacuate family members, friends and neighbors."

    See 8/31/05 - Google Map - Poland Street Wharf - w RTA buses - NOT cargo containers - see pre & post Katrina & compare w Canal St buses.

    Per - NOAA 8/31/05 - River Sector - Pics of Poland Street Wharf - w 170 RTA buses -

    Row 4 - 5 from right - N is right - 24428406.jpg

    Row 4 - 6 from right - N is right - 24428410.jpg

    Row 4 - 7 from right - N is right - 24428415.jpg

    For visual comparison - See Canal Street Buses - Row 3 - 14 from right - North is Left - 24427963.jpg - middle of pic -

    See - Google Map - of Canal Street Bus Yard -
    2817 Canal St, New Orleans, LA -

    Feel free to copy, edit and re-post.

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