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The primary evidence would be the fact that large-scale looting was not anticipated. Plans should be made to establish strong points, well guarded by troops scattered throughout the city. Several decades ago I wrote a FEMA-type plan for the military ( We called it FAWESP then, maybe they still do) for a large US city that had experienced recent horrific riots. We did establish those strong points and we also included plans to " canalize" the looting into sites that had a large store of basic foodstuffs and other necessary personal items.

Several posters here and elsewhere have also noted the over-reliance on private transport and have suggested buses and rail as equally important ways of leaving the disaster zone in advance.

"The city famous for its jazz clubs and horse-drawn carriage rides was also a place in which about one in three children lived in poverty, in one of the poorest states in the country. Observers say this group was particularly vulnerable in the face of a hurricane. Many of those trapped by Katrina's floodwaters lived in dilapidated neighbourhoods that were long known to be exposed to disaster if the levees failed. And a large number would have had no means to flee the region as the storm loomed - a recent US census found that one-fifth of the city's residents had no access to a car. "We don't have transportation," one resident told WHBF-TV. "We're living paycheck to paycheck, it's not like we're just able to get up and leave." A former leader of the black caucus in the House of Representatives agrees. "It is one thing to receive a warning to get out - it's something else to have the ability to get out," US Congressman James Clyburn said. Uneasy questions "

Sorry, the wrong questions are being asked. The question that needs asking is, "If these people had not been turned into welfare dependents, would they have had the initiative to get out and improve their own standard of living or would they have stayed there and starved because they are truly helpless? Democrats have taken away the land of opportunity for these people and trapped them in a dependent substandard and dangerous life style.

"..undermine the middle class's already shaky trust in FEMA in the future.."

Every time I see a post on this website that fosters the image of our government as competent bordering on omnipotent, I want to throw up. Unfortunately, there are a few things that we have not yet identified a better way to do than government. Government planning, theoretically one of FEMA's functions, is an oxymoron. Government security or Homeland security is not a joke, but most people on this forum know that flight security depends as much or more on the people on the plane than on screeners on the ground. The same applies to our individual safety on the street. Government never seems to learn, they keep turning criminals loose to prey on people. Democrats want to disarm people thereby removing the most important protection that actually adds some security to our streets. Unfortunately or sadly, much of our security depends on the ineptness of others instead of government efforts. I served during the era of the draft. Not denigrating the fighting men of that day, but anybody who doesn't recognize the improvement of the all volunteer (professional soldier) military of today where government is essentially subcontracting our defense to dedicated professionals rather than the military bureacracy of the post WWII days is blind or not playing with a full deck. Please people, never forget the words of President Reagan, "Government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem." The United States will never be safe as long as a single Democrat holds elected public office.