Originally posted by: Lifted
In fact, using your logic, it was apparently Poland's fault that Hitler ravaged Europe. If they had only done their job and held him back WWII never wouild have happened.
If Hitler published his battle plans 30+ years before the attack and followed them exactly, then yes. Poland could have planned an effective defense.
The city and state governemt was clearly lacking in their plans to deal with this disaster.
Even if all the money had been spent to bring the flood protection system up to the already specified levels (Cat 3 storm) the storm that hit was more powerful than the system had been designed to cope with so there is no reason to expect it to have held either. Previous governments both state and federal have long been aware of the problem and the likely conseqences.
Should the federal response have been faster? Yes.
Are the effected areas getting aid? Yes.
Could things have been done better on all levels of government? Yes.
I think FEMA was certainly slow off the blocks as was the state goverment in deploying NG to the city to facilitate security for operations.
Some of the above can be attributed to the state of the area (lack of power, communications, etc..) and some to the organization of the various agencies.
Only after the major operations are done can a review (I expect congress and the white house will both do one) as to what went wrong and why.