Katrina Disaster

Hello folks!
I am here to tell you that our vaunted FEMA has really dropped the ball this time. Where in the hell have they been? Going to Louisiana by way of South America? I mean five days to get food and water to refugees in the Astro Dome and the Convention center. Why in the hell did it take so long.

Along with this deboggle there wasn't enough helicoptors or boats to handle removing 100,000 or more people from flooded New Orleans. For that matter, why didn't the authorities order mandatory evacuation of everybody from New Orleans, a lot earlier then they did. Somebody in the Government of New Orleans knew that the dikes could not handle anything over a catagory three hurricane. Yet, nobody had the guts to order the evacuation.

I know, I know, the sheer size of the operation is staggering but I think with some out of the box thinking a hell of a lot more could have been done.

Back to FEMA for a moment, this is now under the Department of Homeland Security isn't it? Did this change cause the movers and shakers in FEMA to leave? If so, then our government has really screwed up, because FEMA used to work with the Red Cross the Salvation Army and a host of other organizations to move into areas destroyed by natural disastors, that didn't happen this time did it?

Getting back to the reason for the five day delay in getting supplies into New Orleans, why did they wait for the National Guard? There are millions of trucks available from private companies that could have been comandeered to move needed supplies. And if the big rig trucks couldn't get through, why didn't they comandeer some of those huge earthmovers that can travel through and across just about everything, fill them up with water, food and other necessities and deliver that way.

In a situation like we have right now where more then 2 million people are homeless, jobless, and hopeless, the last thing we need is to worry about missing a few of our luxeries for a while. Let's divert trucks, planes, buses, and whatever else is needed and move those people out to someplace where aid can be provided.

I know that many people won't like this, but the police and national guard should be given orders to shoot to kill looters. What are you going to do with them after you arrest them? Where are you going to put them? I am not talking about shooting people trying to find food, water, and medicine, I am talking about people stealing televisions, furniture, artwork, jewelry, etc.

I am also wondering why work hasn't started on setting up trailer and tent cities for these people!! There aren't enough existing shelters to handle this magnitude of people, and this is not a short term problem, it is a long term problem.

Think about this, when Kuwait was invaded by Sadaam Hussain and he set fire to hundreds of oil wells, the doomsayers were saying it would take years to put them out. The United States sent in the experts and they put them out in 60 days. How did they do it, well you know all of the oil pipelines from the wells to the ocean had pumps on them to pump oil out to the tankers. Well the firefighters just reversed the pumps and pumped seawater back to the pumps to allow them to cool things down enough to blow out the fires with dynamite. Clever huh?

We need this kind of thinking here and now. There has got to be unique and unusual solutions to the problems the Gulf coast is now facing.

If you have any ideas, please pass them on.

GAHILLBILLY current mood puzzled.