Why were the New Orleans Airport, Amtrak, and Greyhound shut down 2 days prior to Katrina & 1 day before the evacuation?

1 I've been unable to find any details on this. The assertion is repeated all over the Web, but never with any backup details. It's always repeated just in this form, that all three shut down 2 days before.It's a very popular thing to say in comments on stories about Katrina, but I haven't seen any actual news stories about it.

If it's true, I suspect it's part of the evacuation. (That an evacuation was necessary was obvious to a lot of people before it became official; the storm was only two days away.) The trains, planes, and buses that move people out of a place first go in to the place, and you can see airlines and train and bus companies being reluctant to send their equipment and personnel into what was about to become a disaster zone. If something delays the departure, your people and material are in the middle of a crisis, and you sent them there.

I've seen assertions that Nagin turned down offers of assistance from Amtrak, but again, without a confirming source. Perhaps sources for these assertions may materialize, and if so, they may contain rationale as well.

2 In fact... all of the assertions seem to start and end at your book, Mr. Harris.

3 I don't know if they were completely shut down two days before, but the airlines, bus companies and Amtrak moved all of their vehicles out of the area so none of them would be damaged and also personnel would not be driving them back into the storm. It's pretty standard operating procedure these days. It's not a conspiracy.

Once the hurricane hit, these vehicles would not have been able to travel anyway and they would have been stranded. Keep in mind that the hurricane had passed and the city was pretty quiet when the levees broke. There was no warning.

The controversy was about the handling of the recovery. The LA governor refused to let the federal government bring in the Army and the city mayor refused to let the Red Cross and other emergency services into the city for four days, mostly due to sheer incompetence.

4 I made the assertion because I experienced it being there trying to get out of town. I have written to various members of Congress who examined the whole fiasco and have never received a response. I do think it's important though (as I point out in my book) that people realize this happened so perhaps we learn by history and maybe wait for a couple of hours AFTER the evacuation order to shut down all the major arteries (besides the highways).

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.