Thanks for responding. I was thinking that the president was probably trying to encourage the Governor to declare martial law so he could send in the Army and Marines to help with law enforcement vs just search and rescue sort of stuff. But if there are problems with martial law and you think none of them want it, then I'll have to re-evaulate.
I really don't think Washington wants to use active duty military doing law enforcement against rogue Americans in an increasingly desparate environment. The application of military in law enforcement is not subtle (nor should it be). And I don't think the state or local officials want to take responsibility for the inevitable collateral damage that would result from turning the army loose on the citizenry - especially in a town where racial politics play such a large role.
The situation will improve. While there is undoubtedly a garden-variety criminal aspect to all of this, it does seem that some of it is being driven by desperation, as well. One thing many of us are forgetting is that these folks are not only in desparate situations, but they don't have any idea what is going on. They get plucked from their roof, or wade through the streets, to the convention center or the SD, or they are holed up upstairs somewhere, and all they see is that the city is submerged and the civil authority seems to have broken down completely. Whether this is going to last for a day or two, or whether it simply is the way things are, now, is something they don't know. I imagine there are some folks who would do just about anything to get out of that hellhole if they didn't have any idea what was happening.
If it was just me, I know what I'd be doing - and I'd be long gone from the central city, on foot, with whatever gear I could take (Before I had a young child, I was a backpacker. I still consider myself such, even if I never get to go. ;-) ), a shotgun and as many shells as I could carry. But if I had my daughter with me in that hellhole, I doubt I'd be constrained by any societal norms in my efforts to get her out.