American Dream

Only eight months after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' Mayor Ray Nagin announced the city's evacuation plan in case a hurricane ever threatens the city. I am sure this will be a great relief to all of the people who were worried that a hurricane might cause one of the city's seawalls to fail.

Of course, New Orleans had an evacuation plan before Hurricane Katrina. David Brooks observed in the New York Times that this plan "must rank among the greatest emergency preparedness plans" ever written. The only problem was that no one bothered to carry it out.

The difference between the new plan and the old plan is that, under the new plan, when no one bothers to send buses to evacuate people who don't own cars, people will be allowed to carry their pets in the buses that don't show up. Under the old plan, people were not allowed to bring their pets, so some people decided not to go to the staging areas where the buses failed to show up.

Obviously, the new plan is far superior to the old one. I am sure that Mayor Nagin is hoping that it will help him win the run-off election so he can remain in office to welcome the next few hurricanes to hit the Gulf Coast.