[StBernard] did anyone see this one??

[Westley Annis]

For what it's worth, and I'm **not** defending the fair citizens of New
Orleans, but...

Look at the amount of time to prepare for this.  Upriver they were warned
way ahead of time about the rising river.  They had time to remove
belongings, secure their homes and find a place to stay.  Here, no one
foresaw the levees and floodwalls collapsing.

I know that Friday before the storm I was at work and saw on the Weather
Channel that K did not make the turn up the side of FL and saw the projected
path.  I called home that afternoon and said to start getting some clothes
together; that we had to leave for this one. When I got home after work I
started dragging out the boards to put up on windows.  Later at night I
started getting clothes together.  The next day was time to finish up
securing the property, get to the bank for $$$s, gas up the car and finish
deciding what to take on the evacuation.  Oddly, I had a slight premonition
about Katrina and took some things I normally would not have taken (but not
nearly enough).  Having made hotel reservations Friday (after a ton of
"we're full" answers) it was time to leave Sunday.  

I'm not making apologies for what happened in NOLA, but if **I** had known
what was coming I would have tried to rent the biggest  Uhaul  trailer I
could find that I could tow with an Expedition.  Or, I would have rented the
largest truck I could with a tow that could take the Expedition and then
loaded everything I could onto that truck.

As I said I'm not defending looting, thievery and the like.  What the hell
is a big screen TV going to do for you when the power is out?  All I'm
saying is that the people upriver did have time to prepare and get out of
the way of the rising water.  And don't forget...Katrina was a learning
lesson for police and other first responders.  Other cities/areas have
(hopefully) learned from the disaster of Katrina.

JY