The amount of Guard and other military equipment in Iraq, and the Bush administration's refusal to accept help from Canada and other countries has resulted in a shortage which has been commented on elsewhere. Certainly more helicopters have been needed just to pick people off roofs and the streets and overpasses, not to mention the Convention Center. Here is a specific and meaningful example: a shortage of helicopters is precluding optimal efforts to plug the levees.
Every five minutes or so, an Army Blackhawk helicopter hovered 50 feet above the collapsed 17th Street Canal levee Friday and dropped a 3,000-pound bag of sand. Each one vanished into the water, showing no apparent results.
WHERE ARE THE BIGGER CHOPPERS AND BAGS? BELOW...
"Meanwhile, sandbag-heaving helicopters are the most visible portion of the levee repair effort -- an innovation begun when heavy equipment couldn't reach the breaches before the Corps built roads to truck in gravel and other material.
The original idea was even grander -- to drop five-ton bags from heavy Chinook transport helicopters. But emergency coordinators commandeered those choppers for search and rescue missions.
So, instead, they are dropping 3,000-pound bags from lighter weight Blackhawk helicopters."
Bush's refusal to accept immediate helicopter aid from Canada is, imho, one of the very stupidest and worst of its many sins as far as mobilizing aid. Bush should actually have immediately contacted Canada himself and asked for them. To not even accept help when Canada offers is criminal. "Matching needs to offers.." what bullshit. what incompetence. what lies. What's new?
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