Well, that's very nice, but your quoting from the Red Cross site is a little selective. The bit further down where it says:
"# As the remaining people are evacuated from New Orleans, the most appropriate role for the Red Cross is to provide a safe place for people to stay and to see that their emergency needs are met. We are fully staffed and equipped to handle these individuals once they are evacuated"
doesn't really seem to support your conclusion.
"A Red Cross official, Carol Miller, said on NPR's Diane Rehm show this morning that the Red Cross was told not to provide aid at the Superdome by the Louisiana, not U.S., Department of Homeland Security. Audio here: http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/ (click link on left side of page) the comment is about 35:40 into the show."
"# As the remaining people are evacuated from New Orleans, the most appropriate role for the Red Cross is to provide a safe place for people to stay and to see that their emergency needs are met. We are fully staffed and equipped to handle these individuals once they are evacuated"
doesn't really seem to support your conclusion.
Oh, but it does. Now the Superdome and the Convention Center have been evacuated. Now the city belongs pretty much exclusively to the dead. Now all the Red Cross can do is go to the evacuation locations.
But if you'll recall, it took awhile for the Superdome and the Convention Center to be evacuated. During that time, people starved. During that time, people dehydrated. During that time, violence broke out repeatedly, as violence is prone to do among hungry, thirsty, desperate people. And during that time, Red Cross trucks idled on the road as Louisiana officials stood in their way and yelled STOP. STOP, because if you're allowed to pass, you might improve the conditions in the Superdome and the Convention Center, and we just can't allow that.
Wrong! Show me where it says the Red Cross was not willing & prepared to do both.