[kabar]

The bureaucracy runs by rules, which become more important than the mission. I'll repeat. When the rules don't make sense and are costing people their lives in a time of crisis, then they should be ignored and commonsense should prevail. Afterwards, we can change the rules. We can't retroactively give people back their lives.

[jackv]

OMG!!!
It is impossible to know what is being done right OR wrong when you're not on the ground!! When the information you are getting is not reliable!! You cannot possible know that until AFTER the fact unfortunately.
FEMA is not a mind reading organization!
Dang!!! Again I ask you WHY the feds were too slow in your opinion???
Notice these problems were not going on in Alabama and Mississippi??
And btw, it was these great liberal minds who insisted on shoving FEMA into Homeland security, creating the bureaucracy in the first place!

[Chena]

It wasn't the rules that didn't make sense, it was the decisions made by the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans that didn't make sense. You choose to blame the "rules", not the "rulers" (i.e. Gov. of LA and Mayor of NO). I respectfully disagree with you. I would never want to allow the President of the United States to supercede the authority of our states' governments, unless they ask the President to do so.

It's easy to sit back now, after the fact, and say that in this particular situation it would have been better for the citizens of LA and NO if the President had taken the authority away from LA. Yet, how can one completely ignore the fact that once you go down this dangerous path, you are opening Pandora's Box?