Nagin's Announcement from Saturday August 27.

Post #222,643 by Another Scott 9/3/05 4:52:47 PM 9/4/05 11:31:21 PM Reply	Nagin's Announcement from Saturday August 27. [edit:] Removed duplicate paragraph. [/edit] [link\|http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=1&load=~/PortalModules/ViewPressRelease.ascx&itemid=3139\|Here]: (New Orleans, LA) In response to the potential threat of Hurricane Katrina, Mayor C. Ray Nagin is urging all citizens to begin preparations now for the coming storm. Mayor Nagin will hold the next press briefing at 5 p.m. today in the Mayor\ufffds Press Room, second floor of City Hall. \ufffdAlthough the track could change, forecasters believe Hurricane Katrina will affect New Orleans,\ufffd said Mayor Nagin. \ufffdWe may call for a voluntary evacuation later this afternoon or tomorrow morning to coincide with the instatement of contraflow. This will give people more options to leave the area. However, citizens need to begin preparing now so they will be ready to leave when necessary. Do everything to prepare for a regular hurricane, but treat this one differently because it is headed our way. This is not a test.\ufffd The Mayor also recommended that residents of Algiers, the Lower Ninth Ward and low-lying areas begin evacuating now. [...] Shelters for Citizens with Special Medical Needs There are two shelters for people with special medical needs open in the state. Citizens should call prior to going to the shelters. The shelter in Alexandria can be reached at (800) 841-5778; the number for Monroe\ufffds shelter is (866) 280-7287. If it becomes necessary, other shelters will be opened in various cities. The Superdome will be opened as a refuge of last resort for special needs patients if it becomes necessary. All individuals may have one caretaker. Anyone planning to spend time in a shelter should bring three to four days\ufffd worth of food, sleeping gear, and medical supplies including oxygen, medicine and batteries for any necessary devices. No weapons or bulky items are allowed in any shelters. Emphasis added. It sounds like he told everyone the right things to do. My guess is that the word didn't get out to the poor areas (lots of people of every stripe don't watch, listen to, or read the news these days), or the poor were unable to act on the recommendations. The general Superdome mess is understandable. What's harder to fathom is the long delay in evacuating hospitals and taking care of those with serious medical conditions. It's not hard to understand that if the sick, poor and elderly (those who were unable to leave) congregate in huge numbers that there will be a large fraction with serious medical conditions that need frequent care. I just hope those in positions of responsibility learn from this disaster and share what they learn. It's still early in the [link\|http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/\|hurricane season]. :-( Cheers, Scott. Edited by Another Scott Sept. 4, 2005, 11:31:21 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #222,922 by Simon_Jester 9/5/05 2:34:06 PM Reply	He's been on the ball.... he wanted New Orleans evacuated before anyone else. he wanted support for the levees before they match lake levels (and might have save lives) he's already declared New Orlean unlivable and wants everyone out. That said, he's been a little foolish too. He's make comments that imply that because the people most affected were blacks that there was a racist goal regarding the lack of help (no racist goals, merely imcompentence). Furthermore, he's staying in the city....which kind of negates the whole "we need to get everyone out" approach. He's one very positive note is that I believe he stands by his words (I may not agree with them) and they seem to be based on facts. (Unlike the White House which is attempting to shift blame by declaring that the states didn't declare an State of Emergency.)
Post #222,925 by jake123 9/5/05 2:42:19 PM Reply	Let's not forget he's black, and probably understands racism in the public service more than most, even though he himself is mayor. There was a study done by and on the local police force up here (ie- Kingston Police Department) about stops; the first ever attempt to gather race statistics by police in this country evah. To start with, I'm going to give kudos to the local Chief of Police here (Bill Closs) for having the guts to stand up to both the police union and to various gov't departments that didn't want to have this study happen, and the result was pretty predictable to anyone who has eyes, ears, and any curiousity about the community: blacks were twice as likely to be stopped, and natives six times as likely to be stopped. --\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca \n [link\|http://consultron.ca\|http://consultron.ca] [link\|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca\|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] \n Kingston Ontario Canada [link\|news://news.consultron.ca\|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------
Post #222,931 by SpiceWare 9/5/05 2:58:22 PM Reply	I recall a similiar study in New Jersey and efforts to squelch it because it found the reason blacks where pulled over more was because they were speeding more. [link\|http://www.city-journal.org/html/12_2_the_racial_profiling.html\|The Racial Profiling Myth Debunked] According to the study commissioned by the New Jersey attorney general and leaked first to the New York Times and then to the Web, blacks make up 16 percent of the drivers on the turnpike, and 25 percent of the speeders in the 65-mile-per-hour zones, where profiling complaints are most common. (The study counted only those going more than 15 miles per hour over the speed limit as speeders.) Black drivers speed twice as much as white drivers, and speed at reckless levels even more. Blacks are actually stopped less than their speeding behavior would predict\ufffdthey are 23 percent of those stopped. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://spiceware.org/gallery/ArtisticOverpass\|Artistic Overpass]\n[link\|http://www.spiceware.org/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #222,941 by bepatient 9/5/05 3:47:00 PM Reply	The more this gets covered... ...the more its starting to look like the Gov may have been overmatched by this situation. Regardless...rules will have to change. If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. _{Fudd's First Law of Opposition} [link\|mailto:bepatient@aol.com\|BePatient]

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