September 22, 2005

A Tale of Two Cities

This picture - of Galveston school buses carrying evacuees out of the Gulf Coast city before Hurricane Rita strikes - sure puts the picture below in perspective. The picture below shows some of the 255 New Orleans school buses destroyed by Hurricane Katrina after New Orleans and Louisiana officials decided not to follow their pre-hurricane evacuation plan's directive to use such public vehicles to evacuate the city's poor residents, thousands of whom had no other way out of town.

Those on the Left who criticized my and other bloggers' focus on the failure to use New Orleans buses, saying using the buses to evacuate people simply wasn't feasible can shut up now. Galveston is proving that it could have been done.

The photo of the Galveston buses was published on the front page of today's Tennessean, with a caption that reads, "Galveston Independent School District buses carry evacuees north on Interstate 45 as Hurricane Rita approaches the coast." Click image to enlarge.

Update: Mike of Mike's America has another photo of buses being used to evacuate people from Galveston. It's an Agence France Presse photo via Yahoo!News

Also, various news media are noting the use of public vehicles to evacuate people in advance of Rita. Note the efficiency and speed with which Galveston was able to evacuate residents who had no other way out. There won't be a parking lot full of destroyed buses in Galveston after Rita passes through, nor will a fifth of the city's population be stranded on their rooftops or in hellish "shelters of last resort," as they were in New Orleans due to the failures of the city and state leadership.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas and Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough told the crowd that thousands of their neighbors will need help and the local governments plan to give it to them. But they said there's work to be done before they can assure that everyone who wants a ride out of town will get one. The officials vowed that the city and county will use various means - from going door-to-door to find those in need to signing up people through their churches - to identify people who have no transportation or who have medical needs and can't evacuate on their own. Residents also can sign up for transportation by dialing 211 and detailing their special needs, Thomas said.

Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc said the city will provide its buses, Galveston Independent School District buses and others to carry thousands of people to safety. The evacuation of people who lack transportation will begin 72 hours before a storm is predicted to hit in the area, he said.

A News8Austin story, Galveston residents bused out, notes that, "From the time the first bus pulled up, to the time the last of the 80 buses left, just before lunch, it took two hours to get everyone on board to head north."

And they started early , as the Los Angeles Times reports toda

"About 2,500 of Galveston's elderly and carless citizens poured into public transportation - bright yellow school buses, plush charter numbers with powerful air conditioning, little shuttles - provided by the city to carry them to safety and shelters well north of Houston. They started boarding around 8 a.m. at the island community center. By noon, about 1,000 had departed. And by evening, the city was down to just a few stragglers...