Quote:
Originally Posted by River Ridge
Nagin didn't take possession, Naqin was hiding on an upper floor of a downtown hotel, do some research.
Many people never saw a bus because their neighbors turned them away. If you understood more about New Orleans you might be able to fathom the idea.
Orleans Levee Board did NOT report to Nagin. The Levee borad was a politicaly set up way back by Huey Long. It was seperate and apart from new Orleans goverment through history. If you do some reading about the Sushan ( sp ? ) airport, you will get more of an idea about the politics of Louisiana and New Orleans.
The Sushan - Lakefront airport was built on Levee board property so that New Orleans politicians would have no control over it. The airport was ( in it's day ) one of the finest airports in the country. Moisant Field ( Louis Armstrong Int. Airport) was built in direct competition of the lakefront airport. Moisant was a pilot who died in a crash in Harahan Louisiana. New Orleans Inter Airport (MSY) was built on the site of the Moisant Stock Yards in Kenner Louisiana and took much of the traffic from Sushan/Lakefront airport.
It's actually very interesting and the history is a prime example of how screwed up New Orleans is.
The school board owned the school buses in the flooded picture and Nagin didn't have control over those either, unless marshal law ( or something such as that) would have been called.
Sorry I didn't answer sooner, I have not been around this forum in awhile.
But please, do some reading and find out the truth behind the stupidity of new Orleans, it's amazing we are still here.
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By Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit
NBC News
updated 10:52 a.m. CT, Thurs., Sept. 15, 2005
Lisa Myers
The unveiling of the Mardi Gras Fountain was celebrated this year in typical New Orleans style. The cost of $2.4 million was paid by the Orleans Levee Board, the state agency whose main job is to protect the levees surrounding New Orleans — the same levees that failed after Katrina hit.
"They misspent the money," says Billy Nungesser, a former top Republican official who was briefly president of the Levee Board. "Any dollar they wasted was a dollar that could have went in the levees."
Nungesser says he lost his job because he targeted wasteful spending.
"A cesspool of politics, that’s all it was," says Nungesser. "[Its purpose was to] provide jobs for people."
In fact, NBC News has uncovered a pattern of what critics call questionable spending practices by the Levee Board — a board which, at one point, was accused by a state inspector general of "a long-standing and continuing disregard of the public interest."
Beyond the fountain, there's the $15 million spent on two overpasses that helped gamblers get to Bally's riverboat casino. Critics tried and failed to put some of that money into flood protection.
There was also $45,000 for private investigators to dig up dirt on radio host and board critic Robert Namer.
"They hired a private eye for nine months to find something to make me look wacko, to make me look crazy or bad." says Namer. "They couldn’t find anything."
Namer sued and the board then spent another $45,000 to settle.
Critics charge, for years, the board has paid more attention to marinas, gambling and business than to maintaining the levees.
Is the Orleans Levee Board doing its job? - Lisa Myers & the NBC News Investigative Unit - MSNBC.com
But some evacuees who tried that route told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" that they were met by police with shotguns who refused to allow them into Gretna, the town on the other side.
The evacuees say it was racism, plain and simple. Gretna's police chief, however, said the town simply was in lockdown and no better equipped to handle evacuees than New Orleans.
CNN.com - The latest on*Katrina's aftermath - Sep 13, 2005
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into the levee failures that swamped New Orleans, looking into the possibility of corruption in the design, construction and maintenance of the flood barriers.
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said Wednesday that his office began the investigation the week after Hurricane Katrina.
"The scope of our interest is very broad," he said.
He said some officials were found to have undisclosed conflicts of interest, and "we're extremely concerned about those." He would not give details.
James Bernazzani, FBI agent in charge in New Orleans, said agents have received numerous tips about possible malfeasance.
Thursday, November 10, 2005 at 03:07 PM
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