The rescue effort is still on-going and is still criminally inadequate! We are now at 11 days after Katrina hit and there are still vast expanses where rescuers have not been, including even in New Orleans. The rescue should have been complete days ago. Even a healthy survivor cannot be expected to live much more than 3 days, in a hot climate, without clean water.
Yesterday I was watching Anderson Cooper on CNN showing video from earlier when they found a building with about 25 people needing rescue, within sight of where they were filming. Down the street was a group of armed military. They reported the needed rescue to FEMA and at the end of the day there was no sign of rescue.
People are still dying while experienced, organized, well supplied, and equipped rescuers are still being turned away at gunpoint. What is the purpose in failing to use the 600 Illinois Firefighters cooling their heels in Baton Rouge! Why turn away Houston Firefighters! Why were citizens with 500 flat bottom boats requested to assemble and then told to go home. Why were the Wal-Mart trucks filled with bottled water turned away? Why hasn't the military been concentrated on rescue rather than forming an armed cordon around the effected areas!
The story, still today, is that of a failed rescue. Bushco could have directed adequate resources to have completed the rescue long ago. They have reached such a high level of incompetence that I am convinced they don't even have a clue there is still a problem.
The story is not that people with supplies, and in many cases, people that are on dry ground with running water and electricity don't want to leave. The story is not that it is necessary to clamp down even more on violent criminal behavior that is almost non-existent at this point. The real story is that most of the military and FEMA are standing around looking for someone to shoot rather than rescuing dying people. The real story is that FEMA is turning rescuers and supplies away at gun point for no good reason. The real story is that the President is more interested in trying to shift blame than in completing the rescue. Everyone needs to keep the pressure on Bush or the rescue will still be on-going in October.