As always, Jack... an excellent post.

What I don't understand is why someone didn't make a decision to prepare for this a couple of days in advance? After 9/11, much review and reorganization was done to improve our Emergency Management capabilities...falling under the shiny new "Homeland Security" badge. September 11 was, for all practical purposes, a complete surprise.

Yet here it was forecasted a couple of days in advance that a category 5, or maybe a 4 or a 3 would be hitting near NO... a city that's been waiting for the "inevitable" for many years. Why didn't someone make a decision to get water and MREs onto a few military bases or other storage facilities within a couple of hundred miles a day or two before?

I used to work for a small, local spring water company in RI for several years back when I was trying to get my business off the ground. When there was an "emergency need", that little company was able to load and deliver 5-6 truckloads of water in a couple of hours.... and it was a very small company....one percent the size of a larger company like Poland Spring. Why weren't supplies brought "nearby" with the 2-3 days warning they had?

Better, after the recent hurricane seasons we've had, why not have nearby military bases in the southeast simply build some storage areas and, before each hurricane season, load up just in case? It's not like it will all go bad in the few months of the season. Stock can be rotated and then re-distributed to base personnel via the PX or re-sold back to the distributor for wider distribution to consumers at the end of the season. I'm sure that much of the same could be done with certain medications and bandages and gasoline and fuel. Many of these items can be arranged on palettes and prepared for drop the day or two before a hurricane hits based on the forecast.

If these supplies were available on bases from Texas through Florida and up through the Carolinas, they could be available to rescue workers for helicopter airdrops on a much quicker basis.


::::::: No disrespect to Axiom, but my favorite woofer is my yellow lab :::::::