"Roy Starrin" wrote in message It failed
"Friday, Aug. 26: At 11 p.m., Katrina is forecast to make landfall
near New Orleans. (Not the 4 days before the original poster stated)

4 days may have been an exaggeration, but it WAS 2 1/2 days before

"Saturday, Aug. 27: President Bush declares a state of emergency in
Louisiana. White House says FEMA officials are coordinating with
authorities in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, and have
supplies ready. Authorities advise Gulf Coast evacuation.
This contradicts what you say below about having food and water prepackaged
for air drops. I'm quite sure that you're correct and that they didn't have
them ready- but why not?

"Sunday: Bush declares emergencies for Mississippi, Florida and
Alabama. Evacuations ordered for New Orleans. Evacuation orders are
also posted along the Mississippi and Alabama coasts, and in barrier
islands of the Florida Panhandle. FEMA moves supplies from centers in
Atlanta and Denton, Texas, to areas closer to where authorities think
the storm will create a need. "
See above.
, August 30 onward, why were
there not continuous sorties of aircraft doing drops of essential
supplies -
especially water and food?
Which were where, and, more importantly, packaged for air drops?
According to the news sources and Bush's declaration above, the supplies
were supposed to have been moved closer to the disaster site - which as far
as I can ascertain, they were not - or at least with provision for delivery
once they were moved.
If you have been following the TV as you say you have you already know
that sorties were being flown, at least out of NAS Pensacola, to
rescue folks---these continue.
Rescue yes, particularly by the coast guard - but NOT with water and food
supplies - equally important when people have been herded into specific
spaces and then confined there by martial law, after having been promised
the above in 95 + temperatures. Ask any doctor in the world what the
physiological response is to dehydration - particularly in extreme heat
conditions. Football players drop dead of it routinely after 3-4 HOURS.
Why were there no ships in Tampa Bay or Galveston
Bay ready to be deployed the instant the hurricane passed?
Are you advocating we have a bigger Navy so that we can home-port
ships all over the coasts to be ready in just in case case there is a
disaster? I'm for the biggest Navy you can afford.
No, I'm saying that there were 8 naval bases along the gulf coast - 3 in the
affected areas and 5 outside them. I'm assuming that any ships at the 3
affected bases were sent in the direction of the other bases when word was
received about the anticipated landfall of the hurricane. If there were NO
medical ships, aircraft carriers or other large vessels anywhere in the gulf
coast, that doesn't make me feel as though my government has its priorities
in the right place. It's not necessary to have hundreds - but one or two
would be nice to protect one of the major coasts of our country.
I was attempting to respond to the O.P.s erroneous statements that it
was going to take up to 2 weeks for the Navy to get there.
And I will refer you to this interesting article re the military's
performance in view of its relationship to FEMA:
Red tape keeping much of military on sidelines
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...me.xml&items=6

I couldn't agree with this more. Whose job was it to cut through that red
tape?

All I can say is,
God help us all if there were a significant terrorist attack on any major
city.
I know you haven't fogotten 9/11
No, that's why I'm livid.
I am LIVID. Our president needs to be held accountable.
And I'm sure he and "they" will be.
I remain skeptical. He doesn't have a history of owning up to mistakes, of
punishing people responsible for mistakes, or for being honest about the
financial cost (ie taxes) necessary to pay for his mistakes. After all, this
is the president who said 2 days ago, "No one had any idea that the levees
were vulnerable to breach"
I wrote initially because I am in
the news business and it bothers me when folks, like the O.P. come
forth with these vast assertions of what everyone knew (knows), which,
upon review, turn out to be half-vast statements of non-facts.
I know that people exaggerate, and I'm glad that you are trying to keep them
honest. But this WAS a catastrophe, and our response was slow and incredibly
inadequate, which doesn't bode well for other disasters. It sounded as
though you were disputing that part, which is why I jumped in.