Since nothing is ever perfect, I'm sure the Federal Government could have done incrementally better. But do you know what it takes to stage transportation and supplies for the number of people that remained behind? There were many more people stuck in NO than there would have been, had the pre-hurricane evacuation effort been more effective and complete. Add to that the need to precede the help with a crime suppression effort that also was way more demanding than it would have been had one third of the NO police not abandoned their responsibilities.
If relief had been haphazardly rushed in and resulted in spotty application and significant inequity and confusion, the left and the media would now be criticizing the administration for the mess and would say that it should have waited another day to properly organize and stage the relief.
We seem to have lost our ability to appreciate exceptional efforts and results on the part of just about anything and anybody. We waste zero time in criticizing the crap out of everything, usually from a position of zero or minimal knowledge. The media help that along by focusing and dramatizing isolated sad cases and fail to offset that with the many positive cases. We should be all more objective in understanding that dynamic and realize we are being treated to 3+ sigma stuff on TV and to unscrupulous political opportunists who paint the bleakest pictures. Let's actually listen to a pro like LTG Honore, who tells it like it is.
The federal agencies doing this sort of thing are extremely disciplined in doing constructive lessons-learned exercises after each event. Let's give them a chance to do that in a few weeks and months and stop our uninformed carping.
However, that the LA and NO authorities failed to implement lessons learned from Ivan is documented and a disgrace. Those people should learn a few lessons from the feds and the equivalent FL organizations who have shown that they can actually execute effective operations to the point where relief efforts after a typical hurricane are hardly reported on anymore.
Not uninformed by a long shot. And not carping either. The excuse of how long it takes to deploy is beginning to wear a bit thin. In fsct in this situation it is BS. 24 hrs after Bush said get NG-MPs into NO they were there. 3 days too late. Like I said. It all will sort out but to keep excusing the delay is not right. I probably am as well informed as you or most Freepers on this unfortunate event. I just will not white wash the situation. He did not act quickly enough. That is my opnion. You can have yours. I don't want to disparage your knowledge of this and you have no right to do so to me. Just disagree. Most Freepers do. Hail Dubya.