Sure the mayor does not have unlimited resource. Neither does the Democratic governor or the President. No matter he, the mayor, is in charge. The New Orleans buck stops with him. He needs to raise taxes massively right away to pay for the infrastructure changes necessary in New Orleans. Hopefully, you are not telling me the city of New orleans is unable to look after itself? Must we make farmers in Iowa and waiters in El Paso and landscapers in Vermont work more hours because the people in New Orleans are not willing to look after their city? What if I and my cult members want to live in a landslde zone. Is is the federal government’s responsibility to pay billions so that we can live in aninherently more dangerous area?

Dugger

Wouldn’t it seem prudent that whenever a hurricane warning is received, that the national guard is put on alert immediately, just in case? It should be standard operating procedure. Why isn’t it?

“It doesn t take a rocket scientist to understand that it usually takes DAYS to mobilize that many men and that much equipment.”

Well thank God that we had DAYS of warning on this hurricane, so there was sufficient time to get everything in place. Whoops – they didn’t prepare, because they weren’t “put on alert” by the Incompetent in Chief.

The National Guard members must be put on alert.”

BULLS*&^! They are on alert! We’re at war! They could have been mobilized a hell of a lot sooner if the F!@#ing Commander in Chief hadn’t been eating cake and playing gee-tar on VACATION! No more excuses for this yutz. The Mayor of New Orleans did what he could do. But he is only the Mayor of a city. Bush is the most powerful person in the world and for some reason he can’t get s#!% moving. Hell, we were able to drop poptarts on Afghanistan quicker than we were able to get help to these people. Wrong brown people in the wrong part of the world. If they’d been in another country they’d have gotten help a long time ago.

It’s now the 6th day after everybody knew Katrina was going to hit the gulf coast hard. I could have driven from New York to LA and back again in that time.

This is precisely the kind of disaster (whether natural or man-made) that the Department of Homeland Insecurity and FEMA should have spent the last 4 years planning for. But what have they done with the $Billions and $Billions of OUR tax dollars? I guess it was to develop talking points to blame the victims.

Walmart, Lowes and Home Depot typically have convoys of trucks ready to deploy building supplies as soon as a storm passes.

Why can’t the federal/state/local governments marshall that kind of support logistics?

Dugger

The National Guard must be ordered into an area. They can’t just show up on their own. And any military involvement in civilian affairs is strictly limited by the Constitution and Federal law.

The National Guard members must be put on alert. I don’t know when that occurred, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t happen ahead of the storm.

Then the National Guard members have to muster.

Then they have to be transported to where they’re needed. And their equipment and supplies have to be transported as well. How are road conditions in and out of New Orleans these days?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that it usually takes DAYS to mobilize that many men and that much equipment. Overseas deployments don’t change those basic facts.

Remember the timeframe here. Today is Friday. The storm hit Monday and did not completely pass until Tuesday. We’re only talking about three working days since the storm passed. And it was only yesterday that officials began declaring some roadways safe again.

Anyway, why are we sitting around blaming each other? As civilians, we don’t have to wait on government orders before we can do something. If we’re not helping people either with money or tangible items, then we are being part of the problem.

If you live in the south, it is a given that your city already has hundreds of refugees from New Orleans, and will probably have hundreds more arrive in the next few days. Find out which organizations are helping to find housing and school for these people. Contribute items like toothpaste, toothbrushes, wash cloths, towels, band-aids, soap, shampoo, toys, clothes, and school supplies. Or give money or commodities to a charity that will be setting up food kitchens or emergency medical clinics around New Orleans.

There is plenty of blame to go around right now, but real help seems to be in pretty short supply.