BTW, of all of the local officials here, the one I'm most proud of is the Mayor of my city--Mayor Kip Holden. When there was still only the possibility of troublemakers among the refugees spreading the chaos to Baton Rouge, he preemptively imposed a curfew on downtown Baton Rouge and orchestrated a massive show of police force.

Without a question, the patrols nipped any potential problem in the bud. Baton Rouge has remained orderly, lawful, and SAFE, thanks to his quick and decisive action.

This part of the story probably hasn't been told much outside Louisiana, I suppose. Regardless, the people of Baton Rouge and the thousands of refugees we're hosting are grateful.

When so-called "leaders" lack inteligence ...

What happened to New Orleans was scientifically predicted, then WHY these "leaders" didn't ACT?

What makes a leader is not the way he looks like (ie, a hawk, a deer, a fox...). When people is told to subsist by themselves, leaders should be disposable, I think.

One positive side of all this is that PEOPLE will remember what happened, and they know now they can't always count on these "..."

I believe their will be plenty of time in the weeks months, and years ahead to find and point blame on all levels of Federal, State and Local Authorities... I have heard so much already, and people are not really thinking things through just arm-chair-quaterbacking the situation...

Let's make it clear that there is not plan for such devistation, nearly a square million miles have been either destroyed or severly damaged by this storm. Does anyone know how much land mass that is... It is just rediculous to think that even the best plan could be executed in such a short time... Plus, Hurricanes are highly unpredictable and you can't just evacuate a city in 12 hrs then have it turn 100 miles west and evacuate that town as well, its just not possible to get the whole population of the Gulf states just to be safe.

Other then that I a sorely descusted by what I have seen and no matter who is to blame their needs to be some major re-thinking about how we handle all disasters... I trully believe that there was a catostrofic breakdown in the chain of command!!! Civil authorities just cannot cope not matter how good their intentions with these types of cituations... I believe the the DOD (Dept. Of Defense) should have taken over this operation from day one. Our military is trained to deal with disastrous unhopefull situations and the chain of command is set and followed... I believe had the Military been able to take charge of this along with civil authorities we would not have been in this cituation but then I am arm-chair-quaterbacking myself, so I will only say this is my opinion.

KC

No sympathy from me. If America were to sign the Kyoto agreement and cut carbon emissions, Global warming would be slowed and disasters like this would be averted.

See the BBC for details of international offers of aid. Honduras, Guatemala, Jamaica are some of the smaller and poorer nations who have offered assistance.

Oh, and Cuba is offering to send doctors. Venezuela is offering cheap oil. I hope the USA remembers this .

cuba sent more doctors to the 3rd world than the WHO itself , right now there are about 10 thousand in venezuela , the school of medicine in havana has trained about 40 thousand health professionals from 123 countries, around 30 thousand of them from Africa free of charge provided that they return to their communities to give services to their people , and cuba had trained about 500 black and hispanic doctors from the US for free only if they are committed to serving the poor in their own communities ...

theres somebody allegedlly still in new orleans who is running a blog ::
http://www.livejournal.com/users/int...or/2005/09/01/

Ignorant, heartless, european, typical.

Exactly "denimalz" uterlly rediculous!

Hey let's blame it on Henery Ford for inventing the automobile!... Or maybe Edison for the light bulb, after all it takes fuel to create electricity...

I could go on and on...

KC

Ignorant? Quite possibly.
Heartless? Yes, in my opinion.

Don't, however, start stereotyping a population of roughly 700 million people (about 11% of the world's population) based on the comments of one person.

Too right. I apologise to all who are offended.

Those who are not are the ones Im talking about.

It takes a lot to offend me, but you've managed it! - Congratulations!!

HOW DARE YOU take the suffering of thousands and turn it into some easy political point scoring!

Besides the fact that everything you state is plain wrong (Kyoto is just a taxing exercise, and this disaster had NOTHING to do with Global warming) - having no sympathy due to their government's stand against your particular hobby horse shows you to be without any kind of humanity - very ironic seeing as you claim to want to help future generations!

You are a troll - and a stupid one at that! :)

This people that have lost family and everything don't need a bit of "sympathy" from you. They need help from people that genuinely empathizes with their suffering.

The US govt does not suffer the consequences of this except, perhaps, the annoyance to be sleep deprived so their acting on the media is justified.

To me, this has a lot to do with global warming, yes, because all in the environment is inter-related and there are many many storms each year, but the consequences are felt by the people and not their govt's

Please stop personal attacks. The discussion is too hot.

That kind of cynicism is exactly what is not needed now, or ever. If you really feel that way then I feel sorry for you. If you were to take the time to understand things and really cared about the people that are affected by this disaster then you probably would not have that cynical attitude. Its people like you that exasterbate the situation, rather than help.

Sorry mara, but I am very offended by people that make these kind of remarks.

Agreed, I don't know why I get myself into these (most of the time) pointless debates...

KC