🚀 go-pugleaf

Obwon wrote:

> As the National Guard delivered food to the New Orleans
> convention center yesterday, American Red Cross
> officials said that federal emergency management
> authorities would not allow them to do the same.

The National Guard was the one controling the roads and not FEMA.


> 
> Other relief agencies say the area is so damaged and
> dangerous that they doubted they could conduct mass
> feeding there now.

Could this be the reason why people who came down to help were not 
allowed to do so?  Off course it is the reason.

> 
> "The Homeland Security Department has requested and
> continues to request that the American Red Cross not
> come back into New Orleans," said Renita Hosler,
> spokeswoman for the Red Cross.
> 
> "Right now access is controlled by the National Guard
> and local authorities. We have been at the table every
> single day [asking for access]. We cannot get into New
> Orleans against their orders."
> 

There it is the National Guard, controlled by the Govenor and not the 
Federal Government, controlled access to the city.



> Though frustrated, Hosler understood the reasons. The
> goal is to move people out of an uninhabitable city,
> and relief operations might keep them there. Security
> is so bad that she fears feeding stations might get
> ransacked.


Hmmm, another good reason to keep the masss of volunteers out.



> 
> Obstacles in downtown New Orleans have stymied rescuers
> who got there. The Salvation Army has two of its
> officers trapped with more than 200 people -- three
> requiring dialysis -- in its own downtown building.
> They were alerted by a 30-second plea for food and
> water before the phone went dead.
> 
> On Wednesday, The Salvation Army rented three boats for
> a rescue operation. They knew the situation was
> desperate, and that their own people were inside, said
> Maj. Donna Hood, associate director of development for
> the Army.
> 
> "The boats couldn't get through," she said. Although
> she doesn't know the details, she believes huge debris
> and electrical wires made passage impossible.

If boasts had trouble getting in the nvehicular traffic would have the 
same trouble.



> Because New Orleans remains under water, it is
> different from other cities where Katrina struck
> harder, but where relief efforts are proceeding
> normally. Agencies place workers and supplies outside
> disaster areas before storms, to move in quickly. But
> there are always delays, Burton said, because nothing
> is deployed until experts survey the damage and decide
> where to most effectively put relief services.


Again another reason why it took time to get any amount of supplies in 
and people out.



> 
> After Katrina, he thought he would have to airlift a
> feeding unit to one isolated town, but a road was
> cleared, he said. He doubts that dropping a kitchen
> into the New Orleans' poisoned waters, filled with raw
> sewage, dead bodies and possible industrial
> contaminants, would do any good. It made sense to
> prepare meals outside the area and truck them in or
> bring people out.

Logistics is a taks that so many do not understand.  If you are having 
trouble feeding those who are in the city already, think about the 
problems that would be encountered if you let every group that wanted to 
help in?  They would have problems with getting food, water, sanitation 
and someplace to sleeep.



MRC