Well one thing that in my opinion very much worsened the situation was the officials insistence on retaining central control of everything and basically not letting anything happen that was not in the "chain of command" instead of letting people do what had to be done. Another contributing factor was the reluctance of the NO officials to provide a coherent evacuation plan well ahead of Katrina, one that used such things as buses, trains and barges. The stories of people showing up to help and being told "No Thanks" just illustrates the stupidity of FEMA officials and whoever else was making decisions (if anybody), one of the worst things one can do in an emergency is to hesitate, often a poor decision is better than none. One of the worst aspects of this would be the fact that it had ALREADY happened with Andrew in 1992; same thing, nobody prepared and when it was over nobody had any idea what to do. Again nobody knew where people who needed help where and people who came to help were turned away and told " No Thanks".
(This last is from the book 'The most dangerous place on earth') Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
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Decaf? We don't need no stinkin' decaf!