Before The Storm

The “it’s all Bush’s fault” meme has obviously taken hold in the land of the moonbats. I can only chuckle wryly in anticipation of the hoops they’ll have to jump through to explain away this:

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.

That’s an AP story from August 28, the day before Katrina made landfall.

Wait, I’ve got it already. Bush waited too long to convince the governor and mayor to order an evacuation that they would have ordered sooner if they hadn’t been waiting for the call from Bush. Oh, and Bush told them not to bother making any other preparations, because he’d handle it all five minutes after the winds got under 100 miles an hour. And then the trap was set!

Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Turning off the snark, the end of the article is flat heartbreaking:

In a neighborhood in central city, a group of residents sat on a porch. It was almost a party atmosphere.

“We’re not evacuating,” said Julie Paul, 57. “None of us have any place to go. We’re counting on the Superdome. That’s our lifesaver.”

She said they’d spent the last couple of hurricanes there. They would wait for a friend who has a van to take them, because none has cars.

At a nearby gas station, Linda Young, 37, was tanking up her car.

“I’m really scared. I’ve been through hurricanes, but this one scares me. I think everybody needs to get out,” she said.

She said they planned to leave Saturday but couldn’t get gas, and didn’t want to go without it, so got up early and got in a gas line.

In the suburbs, evacuations were under way.

“That sun is shining too bright for this to be happening,” said Joyce Tillis, manager of the Holiday Inn Select at the airport in the suburbs as she called the more than 140 guests to tell them the hotel was under a mandatory evacuation. “It’s too nice a day.”

Tillis lives inside the flood zone in the community of Avondale. She said she called her three daughters and told them to get out. “If I’m stuck, I’m stuck,” Tillis said. “I’d rather save my second generation if I can.”

Hat-tip to K-Lo at NRO.