>>bridgman - what would you do if you were given the role of being in charge of this entire situation ? How would you have solved this problem ?

Fair question. First priority would be making sure there were available drinking water supplies for everyone who did evacuate. There are a few big military bases within a days drive of the area; don't know for sure but I imagine a fair amount of water purification equipment could be hauled down in less than a day. There is lots of water, it just isn't drinkable. Get the water as close to the city outskirts as possible. Give Canada a go-ahead for the DART team, and help transport the water purification equipment down if necessary.

Rescue seems to be happening reasonably well, except the regular rescue teams aren't trained to work in a hostile environment (and shouldn't have to be !!). I don't know if there are any Guard units equipped to handle combat rescue but getting even a couple of boats and copters in the area loaded for bear would go a long way to making the looters more polite.

After that, I think everything can proceed as it is -- they just need to get LOTS of water in there quickly and knock off the armed folks who are interfering with rescue and relief efforts. Are these just looters and crochety old coots or do you think there is something worse going on ?

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