[Hell Puppy]

This has been one of the top 3, often the number 1, disaster scenario projected for the U.S. for years and years. FEMA supposedly "practiced" it just last year. And this is the best they can do?

I dont have my opinion given to me by the media. And although I'm reluctant to pass judgement from the safety of my cool, dry house in the suburbs at halftime during a football game, I'm also a results guy. Looking at the results here, you fire the heads of FEMA and re-organize the whole thing.

I think the big failure here is to have the imagination and foresight to see what would really happen, especially from a people standpoint, when the water came in. They missed some obvious points:

1) Complete communications breakdown. We're reliant on cell towers for communications now, even for emergency response agencies such as police. Cell towers have battery backup and generators. But the big miss here is what happens when you cant get to those towers to gas 'em up? The result is complete loss of command and control due to total communications breakdown.

2) No communications to the survivors. Did they think they'd still be able to hear emergency broadcasts on TV and radio? Apparently. Stupid stuff here, you need helicopters with P.A.'s to let people know what to do and where to go.

3) The city is underwater, you need transportation plans that dont involve ground transportation. It could be worse, what if you couldn't get buses to the Superdome? This was obviously not thought about.

4) Total lack of preparedness to deal with panic stricken public. In a disaster of this scope and size, people go native, survival instincts override civility. As they get more hungry and desperate more and more civility is stripped away.

The reality here is this isn't a race issue, political issue or anything like that, no matter what the media tries to paint. What has happened here is as a country we've had our first real test of FEMA and they've failed miserably.