I take a different viewpoint on this. I agree that it should all be reviewed later on and improvements made. Right now, the focus of the media and politicians should be on disaster relief.

IMHO, the best plans do no good if not followed. I was stationed at Fort Polk, LA in 1982-1983. In January 1983 it was declared a disaster area due to severe storms. The year before a levee broke in California. While I was in Louisiana it flooded so bad I sunk into the ground up to my knees where the ground was dry. The Army worked with the National Guard and we took out small boats and rescued people all over the state during flooding. Each team had a volunteer fireman, a national guard troop, Army soldier and a small boat. These coordinations were not that uncommon. By nature, people born in LA tend to refuse to leave their homes. We had to drag some older women out of their homes because their homes were completely under water but they wanted to sit on their roof and guard their property. They were afraid it would all be gone while they were away. At that time Louisiana had squatter laws and if property was abandoned and someone moved in and improved the property, it became theirs by law. This was left on the books from the inception of the state but it was still practiced. It made no mention of natural disasters so people were afraid someone would move in and steal their land while they were evacuated. Hopefully, those laws no longer exist. There is a lot of corruption in Politics but Louisiana is famous for it. I have never experienced corruption and power struggles like in LA. Each county Parish behaves like their own country and see it almost as such. We must also remember that the National Guard works for the Governor of each state. The Governor makes the call to activate the National Guard in his state and all it takes is a signature on a single sheet of paper. If there are not sufficient guard troops available in the state due to national disasters that committed the state's troops elsewhere or war, then the Governor can request troops from neighboring states to meet emergency needs. This is the role of the Governor and the Governor does NOT need to ask permission from anyone at any level to do this. Not even the president of the U.S. Having said all that, the state and the city of New Orleans did not follow its own disaster plan. Thousands of buses are covered in water because they were not used for evacuation of the populace, the poor, and the infirm. Those buses should have been at rallying points loading up and evacuating the populace. There should have been transportation to the rallying points for the infirm. All of this is in the plan but none of it was done. People were told to go to the Superdome and the civic center for safety but there was not ample facilities, water, or food available. During emergency operations, each shelter is given a designation and it becomes the temporary "HOME" for evacuees. Evacuees use that location when communicating with FEMA and other organizations to arrange for assistance. They do not need another address or post office or phone or anything like is being reported. The evacuees can receive mail and phone calls at the shelter and their information goes into a database that tracks them all so family members can find each other even if sheltered in different states. I have seen the plans, I have seen it practiced, and I have seen it in action. There is no excuse for what is happening now and the delay in organizing relief, evacuation, and shelter. When the hurricane was CAT4 (anything above the CAT3 level) the national guard should have been mobilized, buses organized and rally points determined, shelters organized, the public evacuated, and the emergency systems on alert in their emergency sit locations. 2000 buses sitting under water today that could have evacuated the populace. The primary fault (for not getting the ball rolling to begin with correctly) is the Governor's. The Governor should have contacted the National Guard and each Parish and order the emergency plans be put into effect. Then I fault the head of FEMA. I could go on but you get my point. It appears that even the best plans can go amuck with the wrong leadership. It is only my personal opinion and based on my experience, nothing else.


>Happens in every team situation.
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>There were three people in a team: Everybody, Someone, and Nobody.
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>Something needed to be done. Everybody thought that Someone would do it, but in the end, Nobody did it.
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>Alex
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>>I'm sure lack of communication is THE problem.
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>>But look at the particulars regarding the Superdome and the Convention Centre! People were told to go there, and they did, in droves.
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>>It really doesn't take "communication" to know that you've sent people there and that they MUST need water and food by now. And if you can't flush your own toilet it isn't hard to guess that the problem must be 10,000 times WORSE in those two places!!!
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>>Where is the COMMON SENSE?????????????
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>>FEMA claimed to have pre-positioned tons of supplies and even a half-wit could have realized that water and food needed to get poste-haste to the two hugest shelters.
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>>A calamity. They saw fit to use "personal safety" as the reason why they couldn't do a lot of things. Clearly an excuse of NO MERIT.
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>>>The lack of communication lines is probably causing the most havoc. I think the regular military should have been brought in as soon as the extent of the damage was first realized. I never thought of water and food coming in on the buses, but maybe there wasn't any at their point of origin. We'll know more after the obligatory senate hearings in about 6 months...
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>>>>I was hoping someone else would start this...
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>>>>By any measure I can muster I have to conclude that the deaths in New Orleans will mostly be caused by ineptness of the "emergency response"!
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>>>>They sent people to the Superdome and the Convention Centre then totally forgot about them for days on end! Sent no water. Sent no food.
>>>>Sent 500 busses and many arrived (it seems) yet none of those carried water or food!
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>>>>We've seen all the big-wigs all day long on all the TV chanmels telling us all how well they're working together and how all "requests" are being answered as soon as heard. Yet no water/food at the Superdome! No water/food to the Convention Centre. No water/food on boats to give to stranded people!
>>>>Levees still breached for Chri5t's sake!!!
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>>>>This truly is an unbelievable situation for the mightiest country on earth. They're own people refugees - surrounded by abundance! Worried more about protocol between agencies than saving lives it appears.
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>>>>I feel great sadness for all of the victims and for the people of New Orleans especially. They are trapped and they have been forgotten.
>>>>The big story is the looting! Imagine! The suffering is a side-issue. There might have been no looting if the suffering had been tended to and the trapped were freed.