If this doesnt prove how unprepared FEMA and feds were generally, I dont know what would:
...In belated recognition of the depth of the crisis, Washington swallowed its pride and asked for blankets, food and water trucks from the EU and Nato, and beds and medical supplies from Canada...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1562789,00.html
NATO?
I understand that all the big-wheel personnel transport vehicles in the National Guard in LA and MISS were sent to Iraq. This is one major reason NO needed a flotilla of boats. If anyone has documentation on this, would you post?
Paul Krugman does it again today (www.nytimes.com).
Quoting the Chi Trib, he says that ... that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients...