After watching the news today I have to say it's getting harder by the day to feel a lot of sympathy for some of these "victims".

One lady had the chance to talk with the head of FEMA, her question?

"Our house has collapsed, how soon are YOU going to rebuild it for me. Oh and my 8-Year old daughter is missing"

It's not the governments job to rebuild your house, it's yours. FEMA provides LOANS not gimmies. Also don't you think finding your daughter should be more of a priority than your house for right now?

Perhaps that's because you think of FEMA as a disaster relief
organization, like a federal version of the Red Cross. That's far from the case. FEMA's primary mission is the continuation of civilian government during times of crisis. After all we can't have those uppity military types taking over can we now? Towards that goal FEMA has rights and powers that are downright scary. Civil rights hampering your efforts? No problem, toss them out. The Constitution proving to be an issue for you? Na! Suspend it and get on with what you want to do. FEMA gets a VERY free hand during a crisis oh and guess who gets to decided when it's a crisis? You guessed it. FEMA.

Except that the governor of Mississippi DID declare martial law. Mississippi was incredibly hard hit as well, but overshadowed by the devastation in NOLA. In Mississippi, they did not have looting and lawlessness such as they are having in LA.

So how did the Gov of Miss have the authority to declare martial law, but the Gov of LA did not? Again, I believe that it is the perrogative of the governor. The National Guard answers to the governor, and the national guard is who takes control when martial law is declared.

All that said, I'm no expert in all that. That's how I think it works, and based on the Gov of Miss declaring martial law, it seems to make sense.

I do agree that Martial Law shoul have been declared sooner. Among other things, I heard on Wednesday or Thursday that even if the National Guard HAD arrived, until martial law is declared, they would have been completely barred from taking any police action whatsoever. This is an important division of power designed to protect states rights. The federal government can't simply send troops into a state and take it over, they must have permission from the governor. And a fine rule that is.

BUT, that's a drop in the bucket in terms of what went wrong. It all comes down to the preparation, or the lack there of. Three things keep jumping out at me as glaringly wrong:

1) FEMA and the National Guard was mobilized AFTER the fact. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. They had 4 days' warning. It took 3 days to mobilize. Had they begun mobilizing and staging immediately, they would have been in the city on day one. Martial Law or no, they would have been delivering supplies, stabilizing the levees, and keeping stock of the refugees immediately.

2) Years and years of studies showing the weakness of those levees was patently ignored. This exact scenario was played out on paper in front of everyone who could have done something to prevent it, prepare for it, something, and it was completely dismissed. Unforgiveable

3) Since 9/11, when FEMA was stuck under Homeland Security, there have been zero, that's zero training scenarios for hurricanes. The closest they came? 2 training missions that were, "What to do in case of a terrorist attack during a hurricane." Yup, this whole war on terror thing is doing a fabulous job of improving our lives at home.

Yeah, and if you go into an AA meeting, you're likely to find more than one or two assholes. If you were to, say, take a look around yourself at the next big event at Disneyland attended by many Annual Passholders, you'll find more than a few idiots. So, if your point is that there are misdirected people in all situations (oh, and may I point out that this woman is under the kind of stresses that most of us will NEVER experience), you're right.

But I don't think it was. I'm glad, though, that if any of us are ever in a similar situation, we have someone who'll straighten out our priorities for us.

Gosh, thanks.

P.S. What's with the quotation marks around the word, "victims?" Do you think people are lying, just to get into the Astrodome?

Not to mention that the Director of FEMA has absolutely NO experience in disaster management. He was hired as a favor to a friend of Bush even though he had no qualifications for the position. His previous job was overseeing horse training and he was fired from that. This was the best person that Bush could find for this vital position? Really? This guy didn't even know that there were people at the convention center when the news had been reporting it for 2-3 days. Gross incompetence.

Let's see where the buck stops.

Edited to add: Oops...Upon reviewing this thread, I see that I made this point previously. Still, it bears repeating.

Not for me, it isn't. These people have been through hell. I don't think it is our place to decide who is conducting themselves properly or who deserves sympathy. The woman you mentioned lost her home and her child. Maybe she was under the impression that FEMA couldn't do anything about her child but they might be able to give her information about her housing concerns. I highly doubt her child was less of a concern than her home. Without knowing the whole story, perhaps we could lay off judging these people for the moment.

More people who have little sympathy for "victims"
 

And, not to be outdone:

It does. That is inexcusable. Bush should answer for that. The director of FEMA should be fired, no doubt.

I will hold back judgement on any inhabitant of the affected areas. That lady might not have slept for days.

However, as far as where the buck stops, the first two places it should stop are with the local government - specifically the mayor of NOLA and the governor. I believe these two points bear repeating - the mayor had days to evacuate and yet didn't even abide by the written plan. Hundreds of busses that could and should have been used to evacuate well over 10,000 people who had no transportation sit in a flooded parking lot. The governor did not declare martial law, and made no use of the national guard because she did not request them, and as GD points out, they can't just come storming in.

The local officials had the responsibility of predisaster execution and did nothing. Yes, there was gross mismanagement by FEMA and the feds in the first three days after Katrina passed, but the amount of human suffering would have been greatly reduced if the local officials had done something to get those people out or get the national guard in there to keep order in the first couple of days afterward.

Well, if you have any respect for Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, food and shelter rank above relationships, not to be an appologist but I could buy her misplaced priorities given the circumstances