You don't think that anything that Al suggested could've happened? Or that it wouldn't have helped?
As I said, I don't know where to start.
As you know, FEMA was prepositioning people and supplies outside NOLA before the storm arrived -- the kinds of people who could reasonably have been expected to be required to deal with a major hurricane.
Nobody expected that I10, Hwy 90, and the Causeway would have been destroyed by the storm. Nobody. The city was effectively cut off for ground transportation.
maps.google.com
I10 can't be used because the ramps are under water. Giant sections of the eight-mile Twin Span Bridge collapsed into Lake Ponchartrain. The bridge that connects NOLA with Slidell, gone. US Hwy 90 on the east, gone. BSL/Gulfport and Biloxi/Ocean Springs bridges, gone.
Add to that the inability to use the airport for two days after the storm. So, when boats for evacuation were flown in on C130s, they couldn't land in NOLA. The had to land 150 miles away and be trucked in via circuitous routes before anyone could even think about using them.
The criticism is just a combination of emotion, ignorance, and is Als case, partisanship.
When the history of this event is written, the signal-to-noise ratio will improve as emotion, ignorance and partisanship drop and and we're left the facts.
The loss of life is, I fear, going to far more than we expect. Still, when when the truth comes out, people will recognize this has been one of this nation's finest hours. |
