On the political side of things, how come no one is asking where in the hell congress is? They are still on vacation and from what I've heard are planning on coming back on friday. Whichever troll mentioned the getting troops halfway across the world in 6 hours clearly doesn't follow the news. The troop buildup in Iraq took months and that was for 150,000 troops. Compare that to the number of people displaced in the Gulf and one starts to realize the scope of the problem.
For all the people comparing this to 9/11. That was entirely different, America came together after that event but if you haven't noticed it hasn't this time. Also the number of people effected by the actual event is many times higher here than in New York.
An interesting note, today at my high school was the first time that this has really been the talk of the school. Before today no one aside from myself mentioned it. I think there is a general lack of understanding as to what was predicted to happen in that area and what has happened now.
Its my opinion that FEMA likely underestimated the scale and magnitude of the problems. One can only rely on having a plan before hand so much and as soon as one thing goes wrong the whole plan is out the window. I honestly believe that everything that can be done is being done at this point. People talk about the fact that the dead are just being left on the streets, well it ought to provide further motivation for the people to get out of town. How would you feel if you saw them removing the dead bodies while you were without water, food and shelter?
It takes time to get people and resources prepared and on the move. Its clear that the situation in NO has decayed faster than they can get resources in to help. I doubt any of the emergancy plans had troops walking around in body armor with guns at the ready to battle gangs and looters. An oversight maybe, but one can only plan for so much.