I hate to say it but 9-11 and OKC pale in comparison to the size and scope of this disaster. Man has nothing on Mother Nature when it comes to metting out wholesale death, destruction, and suffering.
Reference post 166, I agree. I was one of the police officers at the OKC bombing, and I have survived a hurricane not too long ago in Virginia.
This is a large scale operation, and there should have been plans in place for the rescue of personnel based on past hurricane history and worst case scenarions. They had time to plan, and they failed. It wasnt the rank and file who failed, it was the management and the elected officials who failed.
Loss of communications is not an excuse to allow a city to descend into anarchy and chaos. You use messnegers, or even carrier pigeons if you have to, but communications is a necessity in this situation.
You can put a repeater in an aircraft and make it fly tight left hand circles at 5000 feet to keep comms if it is necessary . You can also take over GMRS frequencies and use Line of sight commo if you have to. There are options out there, it's just that no one is inspiring them or looking to solve the problems. Thats a leadership issue.
Some of the people on rooftops and under buildings are on the third day of no food or water, and some will start to fail before long. Its happening already, from some of what I have read.
There needs to be an airlift and maybe even an airdrop of supplies to stranded people who need supplies immediately. Otherwise, the body count will continue to grow. This hurricane is still in progress, from a response point of view, and it is getting grimmer by the minute.
New Orleans leadership needs to wake up, or someone in the adult world needs to take over. There are people out there who need help at this moment, not 3 days from now.