Guardian: Why did help take so long to arrive?

[unhappycamper]

Why did help take so long to arrive?
Julian Borger and Duncan Campbell
Saturday September 3, 2005
The Guardian

'It is incredible, the government had no evacuation plan ... the first power in the world and it left its own population adrift." It will be particularly galling that the man voicing those thoughts, echoed yesterday by many across the United States and around the world, was Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, and one of the Bush administration's main hate figures.

That bewilderment, tinged with anger towards officials at local and national level, was shared at the scene of the disaster and by political commentators and disaster relief experts. In Louisiana, local and state officials voiced anger yesterday at the Bush administration's response.

<snip>

Most disconcerting for those responsible for the relief effort is that it is not just Hugo Chávez who is expressing his amazement. Jack Cafferty, the CNN anchor known for his straight-talking, declared: "I remember the riots in Watts. I remember the earthquake in San Francisco. I remember a lot of things. I have never seen anything as badly handled as this situation in New Orleans. Where the hell is the water for these people? Why can't sandwiches be dropped to those people in that Superdome down there? It's a disgrace. And don't think the world isn't watching."

MORE
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1561909,00.html