Tell me this, how can China evacuate

[clydefrand]

millions of people for each major storm that hits that
country, and Bush, etc. couldn't evacuate a couple hundred
thousand from NO even tho he had lots of warning?
(1.4 million this weekend, several million a couple weeks ago
for another major storm)

[shadowknows69]

1. intent helps

[Willinois]

2. Big Gubment

They have it. We don't.

[fenriswolf]

3. better yet

when they were informed of the horrid states of the levy's several months in advance by the LA engineers why was nothing done? the LA engineers informed the wh months before katrina was hit and were informed that they levy's would break if a major storm hit them. of course their was a shock and awe of privitization that was ready before the storm hit so that companies could come in and transform new orleans but maybe the companies were doing a little bit of wishfull thinking.

[Tesla]

6. If there are a ton of oil rigs right off shore

Don't you think there could possible be a need for rigs inland?
Someone was living their oil!

[daninthemoon]

7. The peril of those levys was known for many years.

[notadmblnd]

9. deliberate negligence

it's what I've always thought. They let it happen and used incompetence as an excuse to get away with it.

[daninthemoon]

4. They aren't running a social experiment, which is what NO seems to

be for the neocons. Ironic, isn't it?

[JVS]

5. When the Chinese government says "move" people have to listen.

[Igel]

8. Because NOLA had a bad plan,

and those with the resources had no authority to carry out any plan.

It was known for years that the mandatory evacuation plan that was drawn up for New Orleans left maybe 20% of the population unaccounted for--specifically the elderly and the poor. Remember, for all the warning the had, the mandatory evacuation was actually announced Sunday morning. Believing local government is somehow smarter and better informed about facts on the ground than DC is, they call the shots until they cede authority. They didn't call the shots well, and they didn't cede authority.

Note also that the evacuation wasn't just for NOLA. Well ove a million people evacuated, not just a couple hundred thousand.

Houston had a different kind of problem. It had evacuation plans, but had no provision for counterflow traffic to facilitate the cars' leaving, nor did it have a way of staging the evacuation. Either declare mandatory evacuation for a large area or don't declare a mandatory evacuation. Now there are zones, so Zone A can be told to evacuate before Zone B. And they have fuel depots and plans for counterflow traffic. And, I hope, they have a way of advising people to stay put; where I live was deserted 24 hours before landfall, and the area ran no risk of flooding.

[kurth]

10. The Chinese have a plan for mass evacuations

going back to the Cold War. During the Vietnam War, they actually thought America was going to firebomb Shanghai.