[saquin]

This will defintely be the biggest natural disaster to ever hit the U.S. I wouldn't be surprised to see the total casualty count, including those who've died in hospitals,etc. in the week after the hurricane, approach 15-20,000.

When you compare it to other bad hurricanes in the recent past that killed double digits at the most, it puts the emergency response in perspective. Everyone's saying things weren't done fast enough but this disaster was on a magnitude hundreds of times greater than any other U.S. hurricane in modern times. You can't expect everything to be under control within 2 days. That fast a response wasn't even accomplished with hurricanes whose effects were infinitesimal compared to this one.

[jetvol1]

Look I'm the biggest conservative around but there is absolutely no excuse for thousands of people on an off ramp being past by day after day by rescue trucks and not even being given water, meals or even an idea of where to go for help.
This was big yes but the response from the feds was very saddening.

[granite]

I do the math over and over. In NO alone, with a population of 1.4 million, the report is that 400,000 left before the storm. They have maybe 200,000 in shelters or waiting on buses. Where are the remaining 800,000?

[mdmathis6]

"This will defintely be the biggest natural disaster to ever hit the U.S. I wouldn't be surprised to see the total casualty count, including those who've died in hospitals,etc. in the week after the hurricane, approach 15-20,000"

I have a sinking feeling it will be 4 to five times higher!