[Steve_Seattle]

"But can anyone name a natural disaster in which more federal troops, supplies, and money have been dispatched as quickly as they have been done in this disaster? Bush's response has not been unusually bad, but amazingly powerful and swift. In other hurricanes, survivors have been left for weeks on their own."

Can anyone with firsthand experience corroborate this? I have no idea how the federal response to Katrina compares with the response to previous major hurricanes.

[silverleaf]

Here's a blast from the past about Hurricane Floyd. It took FEMA a month to get moving on flood relief. Note that James Lee Witt has been hired as a chief advisor to Governor Blank-O.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/7/134914.shtml

[the lone haranguer]

Hi Steve,

While my experience goes back about 25 years, I can corroborate it. I am a resident of Fairhope, AL (just east of Mobile, AL) and I experienced Hurricane Frederick in 1979. We were without water and power for three weeks in the wake of this storm, and the only thing we EVER saw that even remotely resembled a federal government presence were the National Guardsmen who patrolled enforcing the curfew. Only once did I see free water and/or ice delivered, and it was handled by some of this same guard unit. Other people were gouging on ice, water, anything they could. Ice: $10/bag. Bottled Water (not as widely available then): $15-20/gallon. MREs: nonexistent (Never saw those until Ivan.) Funny though, I don't remember gas prices going through the roof, but that's another rant.

Times may have changed, and the government's response has markedly improved. After Ivan (2005), the water, ice and MREs arrived on about the 4th day. And some idiots in NOLA and elsewhere complain that the feds didn't act until Tuesday, the day after the storm and the day the levees broke. By my calculations, that's 50% faster than the Ivan response.

[Kenny Bunk]

Ping and I hope this post has legs.

[potlatch]

Drudge Report;
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05254/568876.stm

The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and
Jeanne."

It took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.

So they libel as a "national disgrace" the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history.

WKB has it posted on a thread.