 Mayor Nagin and  the Orleans Parish School Board had been negotiating, aparently unsuccessfully, at least since June to use OPSB buses and drivers in an emergency. After the huricane the communications were not available to contact the drivers of any of those buses to place them into service or save them from being drowned.
<meaning-changed>  Mayor Nagin and  the Orleans Parish School Board had been negotiating, aparently unsuccessfully, at least since June to use OPSB buses and drivers in an emergency. After the huricane the communications were not available to contact the drivers of any of those buses to place them into service or save them from being drowned.
 Mayor Nagin and the Orleans Parish School Board is not under his jurisdiction and his office would not normally know the location of OPSB bus yards or be able to contact the drivers of any of those buses to place them into service or save them from being drowned.