Live from the Nuke Free Zone

Aid is finally getting into the flooded city of New Orleans and
surrounding areas, but the past week’s response to Hurricane Katrina
has been a disaster in itself.

• The amphibious assault ship Bataan spent the week sitting around
  the Gulf Coast waiting for permission to help
• National
  Guard Northern Command had 9 million MREs and the Bataan but had to wait
  for Bush’s approval to move
• British citizens caught in New Orleans report being left behind
  by rescuers
• blunt
  interview with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin
• webpost
  from someone who was in New Orleans
• Notes from inside New Orleans
• Jefferson Parish leader says “bureaucracy has committed murder here”
  and cites FEMA rejecting aid and cutting emergency communication
  lines
• FEMA Deputy Director
  Patrick Rhode says “this has been probably one of the most efficient and
  effective responses in the country’s history”
• White House blaming
  state and local government for the mess
• Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff claims no one could have
  predicted the disaster
• Angel Flight
  evacuation planes sent back, according to “this entry on a aviation
  mailing list”
• FEMA
  orders CA-based ’swift water’ rescue teams to stop rescuing people
• Offer of 300 ambulances blocked by red tape
• “The police were in boats watching us. They were just laughing at us. Five of them to a boat, not trying to help nobody. Helicopters were riding by just
  looking at us. They weren’t helping. We were pulling people on bits of wood, and the National Guard would come driving by in their empty military trucks.”
• Bush brought much-needed equipment to Biloxi for a photo-op and wouldn’t
  let it be used for rescuing people
• Bush staff
  create food distribution center in New Orleans for him to be photographed
  in front of, then tear it down and take away the food right after he leaves [Correction: This is actually a repeat of the above story about Biloxi]
• Air relief efforts halted for Bush visit
• Bush brings repair team to broken New Orleans levee for newsmeet,
  repair team disappears when he leaves
• St. Bernard and Plaquemines (the hardest hit areas) were largely
  abandoned by FEMA
• Red
  Cross barred from delivering aid to New Orleans
• Mayor
  of Slidell [northeast of Lake Pontch] complains about FEMA refusing to
  deliver fuel and generators
• New Mexico National Guard delayed five days by red tape
• Small aid group
  of Loudon, VA police sent back by LA state police
• Local flotilla of 500
  boats barred from assisting
• 500 Florida airboats barred from
  assisting
• Report: “I have spoken to relief efforts and understand that
  there are plenty of supplies waiting for these people, BUT THEY ARE NOT BEING
  ALLOWED INTO THE CITY. The National Guard has the city surrounded and is not
  letting anyone in or out, except the buses being evacuated.”
• Canadian search and rescue team was denied entry by Homeland Security
• Homeland Security disaster aid stockpiles untapped
• UN offering help, hearing no response
• FEMA had to
  be told by the news networks that evacuees were being sent to the convention
  center
• Reuters report of police killing their own
  citizens
• Chicago offers aid, FEMA turns it down
• Many of National Guard’s high water vehicles in Iraq
• Former Army Corps of Engineers head Mike Parker was forced out of office
  for complaining about budget cuts to levee repairs in general

Thankfully, many of these problems have since been fixed, only too late for some people. There has also been some good news during this time:

• Cindy Sheehan’s
  protest group is donating supplies to the aid effort. I see this as an
  obligation on their part because they were advertising a cross-country
  road trip just before the storm struck. If they can go on a cross-country
  road trip, they can go help out with the hurricane victims.
• A general
  who started getting things done in New Orleans
• Teenager commandeers abandoned bus and rescues 100
  people. Since he’s black, he’s a “looter” who may face criminal
  charges.
• News
  reporters do their job. Even at Fox.
• Al Gore charters
  a plane to fly hospital patients to Tennessee. There were rumours that
  FEMA had forbidden the flight.

Related reads:

• The BBC
  has a roundup of quotes from worldwide news reports on the Katrina
  aftermath
• The
  Moderate Voice has a round-up of the blogosphere
• New Orleans Times-Picayune calls for FEMA Director Michael
  Brown to be fired
• Scalzi explains
  why the flood victims couldn’t just load up their $60,000 SUVs and head off
  to the Hamptons
• Net.friends
  error and
  Cairsten
  have their say.
• “We’re naming it Lake George, ’cause it’s his frickin fault.”
• The breakdown of the federal response to Katrina looks like Ronald Reagan’s ideal government
• You can blame any of
  the politicians involved, the main thing is that things need to get
  done