ANY Local Responsibility for Katrina Disaster?

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From the City of New Orleans Emergency Preparedness Plan:

The safe evacuation of threatened populations when endangered by a major catastrophic event is one of the principle reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. The thorough identification of at-risk populations, transportation and sheltering resources, evacuation routes and potential bottlenecks and choke points, ... are the primary tasks of evacuation planning...

Authority to issue evacuations of elements of the population is vested in the Mayor. By Executive Order, the chief elected official, the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, has the authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane.
...

Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the Mayor of New Orleans.

More from the plan: "Slow developing weather conditions (primarily hurricane) will create increased readiness culminating in an evacuation order 24 hours (12 daylight hours) prior to predicted landfall."

More: "The City of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas."

On Fox News Sunday, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) had this to say (via Flopping Aces):
LANDRIEU: "I am not going to level criticism at local and state officials. Mayor Nagin and most mayors in this country have a hard time getting their people to work on a sunny day, let alone getting them out of the city in front of a hurricane."
...
WALLACE: Well, look in the picture here. There were hundreds of buses in parking lots. The city and the state.
LANDRIEU: That is underwater. Those...
WALLACE: It wasn't underwater before the...
LANDRIEU: Those buses were underwater. Those buses...
WALLACE: They weren't underwater on Saturday; they weren't underwater on Sunday.

Flopping Aces also has the transcript from "Meet the Press" on Sunday, September 11, where Tim Russert interviews New Orleans Mayor Nagin:

RUSSERT: Many people point, Mr. Mayor, that on Friday before the hurricane, President Bush declared an impending disaster. And The Houston Chronicle wrote it this way. "[Mayor Nagin's] mandatory evacuation order was issued 20 hours before the storm struck the Louisiana coast, less than half the time researchers determined would be needed to get everyone out. City officials had 550 municipal buses and hundreds of additional school buses at their disposal but made no plans to use them to get people out of New Orleans before the storm.
...
It was your responsibility. Where was the planning? Where was the preparation? Where was the execution?

Then this bombshell:

RUSSERT: "Amtrak said they offered to remove people from the city of New Orleans on Saturday night and that the city of New Orleans declined."

You can read Nagin's responses for yourself. Pretty much the same as Senator Landrieu: dodge, weave and blame Bush!

Here's more by way of Newsmax, via Crush Liberalism:

Appearing on NBC's "Dateline," Nagin was asked by host Stone Phillips: "What was mobilized? I mean were national guard troops in position. Were helicopters standing by? Were buses ready to take people away?"

"No. None of that," the Big Easy mayor replied. "Why is that?" an incredulous Phillips asked. Nagin replied: "I dont know. That is question for somebody else."

The Louisiana Democrat didn't explain just who the "somebody else" was, saying only: "All I can do is [say] that I was dealing with it as a mayor -- how do I prepare my city for an incredibly powerful storm? So immediately we tried to get as many people out as possible."