Yes, because weather prediction is such an exact science. And how much warning would have been enough? There was a mandatory call to evacuate. These people, by and large, chose to stay for one reason or another, or could not transport themselves out. Either way, all this 'woulda-shoulda-coulda' without ANY basis in reality is a waste of our time and your brain cells. This is the largest rescue effort in american HISTORY, and NOBODY could have predicted that with the data they had available.
Wrong again. I'll go ahead and spell it out for you since you, like everyone else spewing garbage on this thread, has serious critical thinking problems.
1) There are plenty of National Guardsman and military personell stateside that have been deployed and activated. There is no shortage stateside, everyone up and down the chain have acknowledged this. They have also acknowledged that the efforts to move these people into situations where they can help have been unacceptable. So manpower isn't the problem, it's infrastructure. Troops are rotated back home all the time. Many of the guardsmen going to NO now just came back from Iraq. I also know quite a few reservists that haven't even been activated. So, your little logical fallacy of 'we can't send people because the're everywhere else' is just plain wrong. The sooner you accept this fact, the less stupid you will be.
2) Up till the last 24 hours, people have been trying to tackle the violence and looting issue as a law enforcement problem. This is ineffective, and it must be treated as a military problem. However, it is expressly illegal to use the US military for law enforcement actions on it's own soil. It is called the Posse Comitatus Act:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act Certain situations must exist to supercede it, and this is likely why it's taken a handful of days.
So? Why are you even bothering pouding this point? The region was not safe for the president, the rescue and enforcement efforts were haphazard and disorganized, and he and congress just signed over 10.5 billion in initial relief? I suppose you'd rather have had him pootling around looking at damage or something? What difference does it make? Will having the president there suddenly restore order out of lawlessness? Will it magically make the rescue efforts 5000% more efficient? Please. Irrational, idiotic Bush-bashing is what makes it difficult to address the real, legitimate reasons of his failed presidency. You are part of the problem, not the solution.