by the Way . . .

Mayor C. Ray Nagin announced the new New Orleans evacuation plan, 8 months in the making. No more Superdome stays. You now catch the bus to the Superdome, where other buses will swish you out of town on the freeways. He emphasized that everyone is responsible for looking out for themselves when the order comes, which presumably is knowing where your nearest bus stop is. He is allocating Amtrack trains to extracate the elderly and disabled, but it was not clear whether the feeder bus would stop at the train station first, or after the Superdome.

Everything will be a lot easier this time around, as of the 130,000 or so that didn't have cars, only about 10,000 have returned. That is still quite a crowd at the bus stop, so it will be good to start early. Even better, consider sleeping out at the bus stop. Think of it as the morning after Christmas at Walmart. There will also be some practice runs, as the 7,000 or so in unstable trailers will be ordered out for little warm up storms.

This is in the middle of the Mayor race, but C. Ray pointed out that if his opponent is elected the plan won't work. "If somebody new comes in, they would have to be Einstein to figure this out". I know what he means. Ever try to read those big city bus schedules?