Katrina Response Mismanagement

[wendybeth]

One of my co-workers has a husband who is a firefighter. He volunteered to go down to the South with a contingent of Spokane area firefighters, and his reports from the field are pretty unpleasant. First, they had to fly into Atlanta and get shots like the ones you get if you are going into Africa or any of the tsunami areas. He is near Biloxi, an area he was very familiar with, and he said it's just pure destruction- pictures cannnot begin to convey the devastation. We also have a nephew who is in NO with the military, and he has contracted some funky skin rash and is sick, although they don't know with what yet.

I'd heard on the day before the hurricane struck that the airport had closed and public transport was not running. It sounds like the locals cut and run, although time will tell if it's a case of them running or being ordered, but what a shame. So many more people could have and should have been able to get out.