FEMA 'doctors were handed mops' - admidst sick & dying

[katty]

continues at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/15/katrina.response/

Leadership vacuum stymied aid offers
Doctor: Officials gave hospital staffers mops as people died

Friday, September 16, 2005 Posted: 1719 GMT (0119 HKT)

A doctor reported that sick people languished in the New Orleans airport while he mopped floors.
Image:

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
New Orleans (Louisiana)
Louisiana
Department of Homeland Security

Manage Alerts | What Is This? (CNN) -- As violence, death and misery gripped New Orleans and the surrounding parishes in the days after Hurricane Katrina, a leadership vacuum, bureaucratic red tape and a defensive culture paralyzed volunteers' attempts to help.

Doctors eager to help sick and injured evacuees were handed mops by federal officials who expressed concern about legal liability. Even as violence and looting slowed rescues, police from other states were turned back while officials squabbled over who should take charge of restoring the peace.

[Vanje]

1. Genocide

when I first heard the word applied to the feds response to Katrina, i thought it was overblown hyperbole.
Now I think it is a dead accurate description.

[Skittles]

2. the whole thing just makes no sense to me

WHY would such "squabbling" occure FOLLWING A MAJOR NATURAL DISASTER? When has this happened before? It just makes no sense to me at all.

[freeplessinseattle]

3. This makes no sense whatsoever. they are murderers

just sickening.

[Kailassa]

4. FEMA are not stupid

, they didn't stuff up at all, it's just that mass murder makes sense to them.