Small gang?

http://www.zippyvideos.com/8911023771013466/countdown-looting-in-walmart

Ya mean ya can't strap a Garmin hand-held GPS onto one, and turn it into a
JDAP (Joint Direct Assistance Pallet)?  :)

That would be through the swamps...

Yup, like say, NO municipal government and the LA state government. Hell,
I'm watching Senator Lott run down the time line as to how  they are
actually ahead of the curve in how things went compared to other storms.

Yeah, with one vehicle, loaded by who? To what effect on a mass of over
20,000 people? Takes time to put together an co-ordinated effort, not just
hours.

Good for you. We're sending all our local Red Cross people to help you. And
local ambulance crews. And our money. And likely more in the days to follow.
See, we remember this sh.t, we went through Agnes, and got flooded out for
days ourselves. We didn't have a big city to take care of us, and our
capital was flooded out as well. We had graveyards popping out coffins, mine
runoff poisoning our drinking water, and no way to get to any safe major
city within 100 miles. We learned from it, so now when a storm comes
through, we deal with it. We don't blame the president, or the governor. We
have local people who know their jobs, and they DO those jobs.

They got the best. The USCG was there within hours. NG branches were there
within a day. Why not tell one of those guys that help wasn't there in time,
and you have an idea how to make it faster next time. I'm sure you'll have a
very interested audience.

One may note that the full brunt of the hurricane missed NO and hit
Mississippi instead......a little observation clearly shows largely intact
buildings albeit quite wet. The day following the storm everyone including
the media and NO local politicians were soundly congratulating themselves
for their wonderful pre storm preparations including the soon to be ill
fated packed stadium. There was as well lots of bragging about pre storm
preparation between the locals and the FEDs. And a massive sigh of relief
that the storm had dropped from CAT5 to Cat4 upon hitting landfall and had
veered away from heavily populated NO.

Then as the levy fell the initial hopeful expectation was to fix it and
stop the flow.....as night fall came on the second day it became apparent
that such a outcome was nearly impossible. By the third day the city was
largely flooded.

Of greater note with a nearly 100 mile wide swath of massive destruction
through Mississippi manpower, resources and rescue was rightly focused where
the storm actually hit.......

One might even surmise that NO with a reasonably slow rising(48hr) flood
and a city supposedly already "emptied" would be largely a long term repair/
cleanup and not a budding emergency. One might also surmise that the
locals(common sense) would have propositioned reasonable food, water, fuel
and portable restrooms before filling the stadium and convention
center......

Timelines and realities on the ground may wreck a good rant but nonetheless
they exist. A large scale emergency mobilization costs literally billions of
dollars and disrupts thousand of lives (reserves and volunteers) its just
not something that can be done because something might happen.....at any
given time something "might happen" virtually anywhere, preparation before
the fact is by necessity general and non specific....i.e. at this point
Mississippi and NO have entirely different needs including rescue, manpower
and equipment requirements. Realistically in this case a "flood specific
response" on a national level begins 2-3 days after the initial
hurricane.....Not to mention logistics of distance add considerable
transport time. Requirements for initial local information about
transportation assets remaining or available (airports, roads and rail) is
needed as well.

No argument there......however an expectation based on reality is not a bad
thing.  Rod

The storm was 100 miles wide, and affected an area larger than the state of
Mississippi. Where would you put supplies and troops if you were the
governor of any of these states? Keep in mind, the NG troops will be
affected by the storm, so calling them up will take time. Getting the troops
to their gathering points will take time, due to the storm. Once gathered,
they wil lhave to organize, and go back 50-100 miles. It takes time. The
first NG troops (locals) were on scene Wednesday, unarmed though they were,
because their weapons were moved north to keep them out of harms way.

Ok, lets assume all this is factored in. The Mayor and the Governor are the
ones who have to do this. They are the leadership that knows these details.
So who are you blaming for it?

Ok, the Astrodome is 350 miles away, meaning it would take a day to get them
to the AstroDome, and a day to get back. So you've added at least a day to
the mobilization. Remember, these people are supposed to be local, so either
you respect that they need to care for their family, OR, you take in the
whole family while they are mobilized. Either one adds time.

Yeah, it was going through the area where all these NG troops live.

Considering that the Helos came from the affected area, proper time HAS to
be taken to check for storm damage. By Tuesday, USCG was pulling people from
rooftops. Priority is given to lifesaving rescues, particularly in the case
of the USCG. They were still doing this on Thursday, thus they were still on
priority one.

Even if its possible, the people who make that a reality are the LOCAL
governments and the Governor.

Sorry TBone, but your insistance that the USCG is a relief agency fails to
take into account their primary mission is to RESCUE people, and thats what
they did. Right after they checked for storm damage on their equipment.