Skyprancer,
No one questions your interest in the situation. Several of us certainly question your intent in the manner of your posts. Frankly the majority of what you put on the bbs is negative, non constructive and comes accross as arrogant and derogatory. If you cannot see that, I can't help you. Frankly you don't help a damn bit in what you say and it makes some of us rather angry.
Goob.
Lets examone what you say here. First they did not have 5 days advance warning of a cat 5 huricane. They sure didn't have 5 days warning of where it was going to hit and where the most damage was going to be. Given that the last turn before hitting shore was less than 10 hours before land fall it is a bit hard to decide where to "pre plan" and pre place supplies.
There was not 5 days warning of the magnitude of the storm. Remember it hit Florida and didn't do much at all even though parts of that state are still recovering from hurricanes from prior years.
Given the state of technology no one could predict it was going to ramp up to cat 5 in the 2 days before it hit LA. and Mississippi much less where it was going to hit over the rather large area of the gulf coast.
Just in what kind of facilities are they going to place those supplies at? They can't simply drive a bunch of trucks to a spot on the road and just dump it or stop and wait. If the main access road into the area is cut how are they supposed to get the trucks to that area? Who is going to decide exactly how many of those supplies are going to be needed? You? Based on what?
Like it or not, there is no agency that has the money and resources to have equipment, manpower and supplies of all types standing by waiting to jump into action at a mopments notice. Like I said before it takes about 24 hours just to get orders cut and that is AFTER a determination is made that the Nat Guard in any area will be needed. BTW that is a state responsibility, the Nat. Guard belongs to them and they have the primary mission of civil defense and disaster relief. Adjoining states can't send their troops over until they are federalized. Again someone has to know they will be needed, know how many will be needed and where, then cut the orders and gather the troops together. Activating a unit, in good times, takes 24 to 72 hours before they can move out. I've been a Mobilization Officer and have had to help plan for this in my home state and in Ft. Jackson South Carolina. That includes using Guard, Reserve and Active Duty units to get it done. The larget the mobilization the longer it takes as the more resources for transportation they need to get it done.
Once they troops are activated you must move supplies from some place else to the area where they can be delivered close to the area of need. You still have to move them, mostly by truck and you need roads for that. Remember the majority of the helos were being used for rescue, not supplies and helos are limited by what they can carry and how much fuel is available. Fuel has to be brought in, it isn't there to use as it's UNDER WATER and contaminated.
It takes a day or 2 to locate and start to move the supplies. Now we are up to day 3 at the earliest to day 4, pretty much what happened. After the equipment is there it has to be reloaded to deliver to an area where it can get to the folks who need it and a distruibution point. Another day so now we're at day 5.
Guess what, that is almost exactly the time schedule as it happened.
Budget cuts do not allow stockpiling of misc supplies and equipment in areas for a "just in case" scenario. Supplies are purchased on a as needed basis and the same for heavy equipment. Supplies also have a definite shelf life. You cannot exceed that time and still use them. That includes fuel, food and other consumable items like medical supplies. It has been years since the old cold war civil defense stock piles were expired and destroyed or consumed, the shelters deactivated and turned to other uses.
The city was under a mandatory evacuation. From the footage of the area and in particular the looters it's quite obvious a lot of very able bodied folks did not evacuate. Rescuers have seen car after car still in the driveways of homes under water. Transportation wasn't an issue for everyone that stayed behind. Given that this was an area that was populated by people who are not prisoners, they could not be forcably ejected from their homes even if there was enough Police to do the job which there wasn't.
Got a clue for you here on another issue. If you understand people in a stressfull situation you have to know that getting help to a large group requires structure. If you just dump a bunch of stuff by air you'll get a mob situation and cause more casualties than you could possibly prevent. The most able bodied will move out very fast and it will be who can get the most stuff the fastest and the devil take the hind most. That means it won't be equitably distributed and the weak will be hurt trying to get it, IF it lands where it can be reached. The items dropped by air are also heavy and you can't drop it right on the people without killing them. Dispersion is also a normal function of dropping small items by air and a 5 lb package dropped at 175 MPH from 750 to 1000' will do some serious damage both to the item dropped and the object or person it lands on. It will take a higher drop due to the tall buildings in the area of a major city.
Now this post has been long enough but I am pretty PO'ed at some of the criticism levied on a situation that could not be forseen or prepared for. It's rather obvious that several of the posts are from folk, who frankly have no clue about what is involved in disaster planning and response issues. Before you simply dump crap on your keyboard and complain (the term is female dog) stop and try to think about how it would have to be done and look to see what is being done.
Laz is quite right in a couple things. The government is not prescient, omnipotent and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. It can only react in a lot of cases and given the reality of getting things done, takes time to make things happen.
