In article ,
"John Plimmer" wrote:

This is the headline from this BBC report
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4210674.stm

I am proud to say that as a little old South African in a third world
country at the Southern tip of darkest Africa we had a devastating
flood in my little town in 2002. The skies had not even cleared from
the raging storm when the air force choppers arrived in force. They
rescued those in need, brought in emergency personnel and special
riot police to prevent looting. Although the flood put out water
supplies, washed away our connecting roads, power and sewerage
systems, mighty teams of specialists arrived within hours and all
services were restored within 48 hours except the roads that took a
few days longer. The choppers brought in food until the roads were
reconstructed.

I felt very proud to be a South African at that time and was
immensely grateful for the smooth running and super national rescue
effort that took place seemingly so easily, like a well oiled
machine.

What happened to mighty America...??? What did the Federal Emergency
Management Agency do...??? Heads should roll for this debacle - it is
inexcusable in a superpower with all America's vast resources.

I think that basically you fail to grasp the enormity of the situation.
It will take time for enough resources to get there to make a difference.
This is not a little town but a large city with several 100,000's of
people that did not make it out in time. It's going to take years and
billions of dollars to rebuild that city and infrastructure and many
billions more to make sure it does not happen again.

FEMA had supplies in place the day before the hurricane made landfall in
the gulf but getting those supplies in or the people out became a
logistical nightmare with the city flooding. Early rescue attempts by
chopper were thwarted by looting and sniper fire. The city was not under
control of its own police force.

The order of blame in any delayed response should be on the city New
Orleans then the state, which have a first responsibility in the
disaster. The city and the state failed to have situation in hand giving
enough time for a federal response to take place. It's not surprising
that it takes time for large amounts of supplies and personal from other
states to make it there.

I've been listening to the international SW coverage from several
countries and although they convey the severity of the damage it is
hard to get an idea of the scale of the damage.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California