[GonzoII]

Katrina's response time: -I don't remember the details...72 hours?? too long??

[silverleaf]

NO relief efforts 24-48 hours- delayed because George Bush hated black people

[silverleaf]

http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?objectid=31626853-15C5-F00A-25B5B439E00856D3&component=toolkit.article&method=full_html

Doctors without Borders- another good charity to direct contributions toward

[AceMineral]

The Coast Guard and the state Fish and Wildlife with some small boats were recusing people as soon as the wind stopped. There were also private citizens helping at the first moment.

[eastforker]

What do you do with a million people without shelter, food or medical help? My suggestion would be for all the Caribbean countries and other countries in tropical regions to accept multitude airlifts for these people. You can't expect these people to survive in civilized 1st world countries with temperate climates. They wouldn't know how to live.That may sound cruel but I see no other alternative. Haiti needs a mass evacuation of all its people to deal with this catastrophe.

[jnsun]

It's going to take a little time, maybe two weeks for the vast resources available to come to bear on Haiti's catastrophe. This article is journalistic sensationalism, which in cases like this, have value in raising the consciousness/information level of the outside. But never never accept journalistic reports as usable assessments of a situation, or as solutions.

One mistake Secretary Gates made the other day is his scepticism on air dropping in supplies. Air drops are not simply deposited in a vacuum. They are stringently controlled by inserted ground forces with enough strength to define and protect a drop zone. In other words the air drop operation is simply one leg of a distribution system beginning at the origination airfield and ultimately delivered through a coordinated and defended pathway to the end benefiter.

The drop zones should be well outside any air-land (runway) operation so that the deliveries, air-land and DZ, can be executed in parallel. It does require an inserted CCT (combat control team) and defensive force to insure the pipeline.

In addition there are mobile aeromedical staging facilities (MASF's) distributed worldwide in various militaries that can operate as temporary hospitals. It may take a week or two, but someone in the real world out here will catch on.

It is certainly true that the Haiti situation is a long term issue, given failed infrastructure, water, sewage, cholera, etc. Given that we all pay to some degree in a sense, aid should be efficient, pointed, and immune to journalistic intrusion. (Incidentally in Desert Storm Schwarzenegger/Powell did not stand for ANY journalistic intrusion -"they", the journalists, hated it).

One no-nonsense guy that straightened out the Katrina situation was an army General Honore?

[mewzilla]

But, as a rule, there is little help - there is virtually nothing to help with.

Part of the reason for that can be found at this link....

After a Day of Deliveries, US Ship Runs Out of Aid (Carl Vinson in Haiti becalmed by bureaucracy)

From the link....

"The problem is, some people are perhaps not ready to release their stuff to the most efficient transportation makers and want to deliver supplies themselves."

[Mercat]

I’ve been doing a slow burn as our military is once more put in the role of social worker. This is a military and national security crisis. Chavez and Castro will take action if we don’t. It’s time to occupy Haiti for national security reasons and get control of the country. Maybe down the road we can do nation building since that’s worked so well in other parts of the world s\ but for now, order has to be restored at a minimum of risk to our military and relief workers. Its not going to happen though for fear the US will be accused of “gasp” imperialism. We’ve become a nation of wimps.