No, the local police departments did it, although the only one I heard of was Gretna.

No, because huge hurricanes routinely kill people.

It doesn’t border the sea in the sense that it is not on the beach. It borders one of the largest lakes and the largest rivers in the hemisphere. To ignore that it has a huge flood risk is to be ignorant of every storm assessment ever made for the city. Levees break – even Memphis Minnie knew that in the 20′s.

Normal Guard active duty levels were barely increased. Blanco had 14,000 troops available and only about 5,500 were deployed. She did not request Federal troops until after the flooding.

Her state government actually prevented the Red Cross from entering New Orleans.

I agree about the falsehoods, especially about the Dome and Convention Center violence. Technically the Guard was active, but practically they were not. Even Blanco admitted she blew it.

Activating the Guard too late? Absolutely. Activating the Guard after the storm? Not so much.

Federal assistance was on site, but it was at the WRONG site. Brown and Chertoff had no idea people had congregated at the Convention Center 72 hours after the storm.

All of this is a matter of public record. One of the most infuriating things about the situation is that too many people believe falsehoods they heard in the media.

Governor Blanco admitted, on video, that she activated the Guard too late. The LA Guard was activated after the storm.

Huge amounts of Federal assistance were on site within 72 hours. To this day, after billions of dollars spent, there are still people in FEMA trailers.

Thanks for helping get rid of the cars. They were a problem. I wonder how many were found in elevated driveways and on neutral grounds. When I got down here in October 2005, that’s where I saw the majority of them. Folks that put them there expected maybe 1 – 2 feet of street flooding from the heavy rains, not 6 – 10 feet of water from a levee break.

The mayor did not call a mandatory evacuation until too late. He was too afraid of disrupting business.

The hospital ship was on its way to New Orleans and was rerouted to the Mississippi coast.

The Guard was activated, as well as the Coast Guard and the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries crews. Unfortunately, a great deal of Guard equipment ended up flooded at the Jackson Barracks because the levee failure was not anticipated. The Coast Guard, heroes one and all, had rescue flights in the air as soon as wind conditions allowed.

Those heroes threw out their rulebooks to keep their rescue operations working.

The Convention Center was not a shelter until after the storm had passed and the flooding had begun. The Dome filled up in a few hours, not over two days.

It is a fantastic idea to prepare for disaster as if no help will ever be coming. I learned that growing up on St. Simons. At some point, however, our disaster response infrastructure must be called upon to respond far faster than they did in this instance.

You don’t let babies and old folks die of dehydration because someone else screwed up. This is America, we have the means to rescue people and we do it. We do not say “they should have known better, we’re going to take our sweet time.”

The fact is that people stayed because a) they thought they could ride it out (happens in EVERY hurricane in the southeast US) or b) the government would take care of them.

Regarding the speed of response. FEMA said then, and still does today, that you are on your own for the first few days, at least. State and local orgs are supposed to handle things until FEMA can get there. The US Navy was on site with a hospital ship and rescue helicopters within about 30 hours. I wonder how different things would have been if the state and local governments had ordered an evacuation and activated the Guard, as they were urged to by the Bush administration. Louisiana had over 14,000 Guard troops available.

That said, comparing Katrina and Iniki is ludicrous. My wife was in Iniki and narrowly escaped Katrina.

Bottom line – if you are an able bodied person who spent time on your rooftop in NOLA, you are a fool.

Just so you know that is perhaps the stupidest thing to do in a survival situation. All I’m saying is that that kind of questions your view of what is the appropriate thing to do in an extreme situation.

“The problem is that I saw much of the same attitudes she displayed in many of the survivor interviews demanding to know when the government would get to them.”

Yes, probably because it is a LEGITIMATE FUNCTION OF THE GOVERNMENT TO MAKE SURE PEOPLE DON’T DIE IN LARGE NUMBERS DURING AN EMERGENCY! There is a reason we (and every other government that can) provide aid in emergency scenarios. I truly can not believe an adult has to be told that.

Just asking here but… not sure if you watch “Deadliest Catch” or not but the Coast Guard regularly has to go rescue boats and crews in distress. Do you think they shouldn’t wait for the government to come rescue them? Because it sure wouldn’t be easy but they could try to get back to harbor. They could eventually try swimming somewhere etc etc etc. Would you in that instance say, leave the life raft (survival suit completely optional here) just to prove you could survive?

I say all that to say this…I’ve found in life that if everyone (or say a huge majority as is the case here) is opposed to what you’re saying, there is a pretty good reason for it.