Great NT Times article going over the tensions between State and Fed officials. For our foreign readers, the separation between the State and Federal level of government is a HUGE deal and explains why Bush/the Feds/the Military didn't just swoop in. This article details how the Feds wanted to go in fast and hard, but Blanco resisted the legal conditions for that to happen. It came down to her refusing to give up control to the feds, which was required as a matter of law. Here are som...

The Salvation Army has confirmed that their efforts to get the Convention Center and Superdome resupplied were blocked by the LA Dept Homeland Security as well. For those keeping count, the LHSD prevented both the Red Cross and Salvation Army from coming in and resupplying the Superdome (RC/SA) and the Convention Center (SA).

This is actually good news, based on news reports, I had been afraid there was no food and water at the Superdome. I'm not sure how successful their attempt at getting the poor of NO to be self-sufficient was though. "Mayeaux, who is the deputy director of the state’s Office Of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said that the state began shipping its own stores of food and water from the Pineville staging area down to New Orleans two days after the storm, on August 31st. T...

Here's a great article which goes into how the ACE get's their funding and how it's spent. Specifically, how LA prioritized the funding they did receive (hint: it wasn't levees). Although not highlighted, the article points out that the Bush Administration sided with NO citizens (mostly black and poor) fighting a floodgate project against the City and State. Perhaps this was just a ruse to hide the racist intentions that some people keep claiming the Bush Administration has? ...

On Wednesday, a line queued up in FEMA's registration line at the Astrodome for the $2,000 debit cards that are going to be passed out to victims. Well, after some people stood in line for 4 hours, it turns out the line was for normal FEMA emergency registration (not debit card registration), which most people had already signed up for. Whose fault is that? FEMA? FEMA hadn't announced the start of debit card registration and there was no debit card queue, but as soon as some people s...

"Shortly before Katrina hit, she sent President Bush a request asking for shelter and provisions, but didn't specifically ask for help with evacuations. One aide to the governor told ABC News today Blanco thought city officials were taking care of the evacuation."

That's right, the State of Louisiana's Homeland Security department blocked the Red Cross from bringing food and water from the first day. According to the head of the Red Cross (now making televised interviews), the LHSD didn't want food/water brought in since they didn't want the evacuees to get too comfortable and stay.

"It was announced at a news conference by the Mayor Ray Nagin on Sunday 28 August, less than 24 hours before the hurricane struck early the next morning. The question has to be asked: Why was it not ordered earlier? The Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said at the same news conference that President Bush had called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation."

"The federal government began rushing baby formula, communications equipment, generators, water and ice into hard-hit areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, along with doctors, nurses and first-aid supplies"

"Nagin said late Saturday that he's having his legal staff look into whether he can order a mandatory evacuation of the city, a step he's been hesitant to do because of potential liability on the part of the city for closing hotels and other businesses."

So really, if you want to criticize what's going on the Guard and responses may be 24 hours behind optimum schedule, the best you can hope for but they're moving enormously quickly for a disaster that spanned 90,000 square miles.

Simple question, is anyone ever happy with the pace of any type of emergency response? After going through the 4 hurricanes last year and checking out news reports of other emergencies and disaster it should be readily apparent to everyone that no matter how fast help arrives, it never arrives quickly enough.

"NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 3 - Reeling from the chaos of this overwhelmed city, at least 200 New Orleans police officers have walked away from their jobs and two have committed suicide, police officials said on Saturday."

"KABUL, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Impoverished Afghanistan will give $100,000 for relief efforts in the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. embassy said."

"BATON ROUGE, La. As hurricane victims are being moved hundreds of miles from home, the president of the New Orleans City Council is demanding to know why Louisiana isn't housing more of them."