Or having 10,000 refugees inundating the first town on the other side, pillaging and looting.
I mean, the next town over had to have had major damage as well, and they are just trying to recover. Better to keep the rioting confined?
Of course, the vast majority of these people would be fine. But a few rioters and looters, a few people shooting police and the rescue workers, and somehow people get a little nervous about letting you in.
Seriously, it would be much better to get these people food and water where they are.
I can't help but think that a couple of days were lost before N.O and the rest of La. made it clear to FEMA that contrary to their plans they had no staging, no food and water, no process to feed people. That had to be a shock to FEMA, who has sent millions to N.O. and other cities for them to develop such a plan.
Doubly so since N.O. had a history of water damage, required a levy and constant source of power to pump water to keep from being completely flooded, and was always one hurricane away from total annihalation.
If I ran a city like that, And was told 3 days in advance to stage assistance, I would think I'd have a few days of food and water at the major collection points (the places I told people to go).
I'm shocked they didn't, I bet FEMA is shocked they didn't. It's like your daughter asks you to help her with her report, and when you get there it's the last day and she hasn't started yet.
I hope that this doesn't lead people to call for the Federal Government to take over the disaster recovery plans for every city in this country. Each city knows its people, laws, police, fire, and rescue personell, equipment, and capabilities.
I ask all of you -- knowing that N.O. successfully runs Mardi Gras each year, would you have thought that they couldn't provide food/water for 20,000 people for 4 days?
We know better now. And I don't really care if Bush gets blamed for it, nor I presume does he. He wants to fix the problem, not fix blame for the problem.
You can answer for yourself whether the N.O. Mayor was more interested in fixing the problem or fixing blame by the fact that he spent 4 days telling people to go places where he had no help for them, promising them buses he let drown in a parking lot, and blaming the federal government for not saving his city within 2 days.
Pet Peeve -- Geraldo saying that it was over 6 days since the disaster. MSNBC has a clock so I presume their corresppondence don't make the same mistake (4 days 14 hours).
The levy was designed to withstand a class 3 hurricane. This one was a 5. No one knew what would happen, and I'm surprised the states that got hit didn't scramble to make sure their people got out. There were warnings way ahead of time. What about all the school and travel buses? Why didn't they start gathering people down there and shipping them out to safety? I don't understand why the heck they have so many people there at all. Why are they even there? The state government didn't do anything at all to help anyone get out, even though they knew the levy could break.