School Buses Swamped While Nagin Demanded More Luxurious Rides

We wondered a few days ago while the buses swamped in the parking lot in New Orleans weren't incorporated into evacuation plan. Well, it looks like Mayor Nagin wanted some cushier rides for the people:

However, Nagin's most newsworthy comments - where he explained why he didn't use hundreds of city school buses to evacuate his city's flood victims - went almost unnoticed.

Turns out, Nagin turned his nose up at the yellow buses, demanding more comfortable Greyhound coaches instead.

"I need 500 buses, man," he told WWL. "One of the briefings we had they were talking about getting, you know, public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out of here."

Nagin described his response:

"I'm like - you've got to be kidding me. This is a natural disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

While Nagin was waiting for his Greyhound fleet, Katrina's floodwaters swamped his school buses, rendering them unusable.

He'll never be able to escape the message of incompetence contained in that picture of the flooded buses.