Sometimes a snapshot is all you need, in this case, simple facts are pretty damning:
Number of years NO has had a disaster preparedness plan on the books: 4
Number of hours between start of sea surge and Katrina’s landfall: 14
Number
of hours between National Hurrican Center predicting a Cat-4 storm mayt
hit NO and Gov. Blanco declaring a state of emergency: 24
Number of hours between National Hurrican Center predicting a Cat-4
storm may hit NO and Mayor Nagin issuing a mandatory evacuation order: 48
Number of buses available to Terry Ebbert, head of NO’s emergency operations, not used for evacuation: 364
Estimated number of people who could have been evacuated in a SINGLE TRIP had the buses been mobilized: 22,000
