I think there were two major problems that made this situation worse than it had to be: 1) There wasn’t an evacuation plan to handle the people who were unable to evactuate on their own (due to lack of transportation, money, or whatever). The local government should have already had plans in place to get as many of those people out of there as possible. 2) The near-total failure of the communications systems, especially for the emergency personnel themselves. I’ve heard time and time again that the emergency personnel (police, firemen, doctors, etc) lost communications with the outside world and with each other. Why don’t they have better communication? Ham radios have quite a reach, they should have had access to some. I think that the communications problems led to a lack of clear leadership, which in turn led to some of the lawlessness.

Heard anything from the fam? I got to spend a good half-hour getting to know some of my very extended family yesterday, finding out that even more of my Mississippi family came out okay. [How extended? Try my dad's first cousin's husband's niece. Two marriages in between the two of us, but we actually are out of the same generation ... even if she does have kids my age.]

“Government response” in the case of NYC wasn’t held up be the absence of roads or bridges. First responders from surrounding areas could simply hop on their trucks or other rescue vehicles, and drive to the affected area (which was very limited in scope).

In the case of Katrina, first responders from surrounding areas are also part of the devastated area. The “cone of destruction” from a Category 4/5 hurricane is hundreds of miles wide, and hundreds of miles long. Since there are no surviving (functionally) local first responders, it takes time to marshall an out-of-state, or federal response. Nobody ever accused the federal government of being nimble.

Cries denouncing the Feds are misplaced, and harmful to the greater cause. Mistakes have been made, and they will continue. Such is the magnitutde of the problem. Accussations of deliberate neglect? Ridiculous.

Lastly, stealing food and water, or other basic necessities is not looting. Stealing flat-panel TVs is… There’s a difference, and everyone that isn’t wearing their racial blinders recognizes this.

Looting did occur in NYC. People shoot each other and law enforcement on a regular basis in NYC. The difference between 9/11 and Katrina is that the people of New Orleans are _just now_ beginning to see a glimmer of hope, whereas the people of NYC had that a mere half-day after the attacks.

That said, I don’t support the behavior of people who are shooting and looting, but I can understand the mentality that leads to it: hopelessness and fear, and then some attempt to survive through wielding power.

I hope all of your family turns out fine, by the way.

We studied the subject a bit in college and it’s one of the reasons seemingly normal/law abiding people will go crazy, loot, steal, and yes, even harm other people. I’m not saying it’s right, and that it happens in every situation…but usually needs to fan the flames.

I’m just focusing my prayers on everyone returning to some level of normalcy and rebuilding their lives.

Dougal, I hope you get word from your family soon so you will know they are all safe…if it had been my family up there…I shudder to think.

None of that really explains why women where raped… people robbed… attacked, shot at, even killed.

Yes, if it happened to me, I’d break into a store for food. But I really can’t see that I’d rape a woman just because of the situation. The people that did that are no more than scum and you CAN’T defend that behavior under any circumstances.