They have some excellent logistics people just getting set up. I know the USDA is sending a whole slew of people that they use to coordinate wildland firefighting - their system is so good that the Army and people from other parts of the world come to study it.
So far this is what they are doing: HURRICANE KATRINA SUPPORT, Federal Emergency Management Agency. Emergency Support Function #4 is staffed at the Regional Response Coordination Centers in Atlanta, GA and Denton, TX. Two Type 1 Incident Management Teams have been assigned. One team (Custer) will establish a base camp at Port Allen, LA and the other team (Quesinberry) will be at the logistics staging area in Meridian, MS. A third Type 1 Incident Management Team (Pincha-Tulley) will establish a base camp at Stenis NASA site in MS. A Planning Team has been activated to the Long Term Recovery Center in Orlando, FL. Three Logistics Management Teams have been mobilized to Meridian, MS, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL, and Beauregard, LA. Two more Logistics Management Teams will be mobilized to Meridian, MS and Barksdale Air Force Base, LA.
But it takes at least a little bit of time. With no power, no potable water, spotty communication and massive damage and flood, it is HARD HARD HARD to get stuff together. Especially when you're walking around shellshocked at something your life never really prepared you to witness, knowing not only you but everybody you know has lost everything.
And New Orleans is such an island anyway. It's almost cut off.
God bless the emergency workers.
But they are working. And things will happen.
Yep, and the US Army Corps of Engineers have been mobilizing extra people since Monday to back up COE offices in the affected areas. This will not be a cake walk by any means.