Perhaps, but the gas being shut off is only one of many things that appears to be going wrong.
12:31 PM CDT on Thursday, September 1, 2005
12:30 P.M. - WWL-TV: Charity Hospital is almost finished evacuating all their patients. Minimal food and water remains.
12:28 P.M. - (AP): Dozens of post offices were closed and mail service was suspended in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. But officials said they are working to get mail to people. Click here.
And, in NO, a few additional factors that are worsening that situation, including extremely limited access, a lack of communications, and a large urban population.
I would bet money that there is a plan, perhaps even a very thorough plan, that you could sit down and pick through, that is rendered null and void by circumstances on the ground. That happens with plans. And plans don't get things done all by themselves. FEMA had a great plan to pre-position resources, and executed it. But now getting those resources to where they are needed is near impossible - not because of the lack of a plan, but simply because of conditions on the ground.
Yes, it is bad. It is very, very bad. But it is easy for any of us to sit at a computer with electricity and food and telephones and a shower this morning and a car and family members and friends who are safe and sound and pontificate about how we'd do it better. Easy, yes, but a waste of time and breath.