What if this same scenario played out with a California earthquake?

[bluestateguy]

I think it would be even worse from the federal government. Make no mistake about it, this is the most anti-California administration in history. We'd hear it enlessly from the fundamentalistwacko right about how this was God's punishment for Hollywood's filth and/or SF's homosexuality.

I am a native of the Bay Area, and angry as I am now with how the New Orleans situation is being handled, if I saw this happening where I grew up, I would not be able to control my rage.

[FloridaPat]

1. Yes, you got it. Just hope the "big one" happens during an election year.

[Oerdin]

7. Yes and no.

We'd get the same level of incompetance and the same indifference to human suffering though California itself has more resources then those poor southern states plus we would never see a major city nearly completely underwater as 80% of New Orleans is currently. Thus we'd likely have less of an after effect and less chance for complete break down.

This is what happens when you elect politicians based on stupid crap like racial politics, flag burning or gay marriage pro or con rather than whether they are competent first and foremost. In the end it is the fat, complacent, politically disengaged American public that has to answer for this as we are the ones who keep electing them without demanding better.

[Lefty48197]

2. Arnold would have become a federalist.

.

[JuniperLea]

3. Depends...

on if it happened in Compton or Bel Air.

[cally]

4. I know

The crazies would blame 'liberuls' for the problems. It was bad when we had rolling blackouts but it would be much worse.

[cascadiance]

5. It wouldn't be surprising...

Feds alredy screwed us both with turning down state requests for the government to take responsibility in cleaning up the bark beetle infested forests on federal parklands that made our wildfires here in SoCal a year or so ago that much worse.

Also witness Dubya's "do nothing" approach when taking office about our energy crisis then too, while Enron and it's criminal energy trading schemes were ripping off California all during that time.

It's already happened. And it will be that much worse if we get anything worse than the Loma Prieta earthquake to happen again any time soon. Let's hope that God hold's this back at least until after 2008, when hopefully we might have better expectations of federal help then.

Part of me wonders if we should take out California's investment into the National Guard and associated resources, and instead create a "California MIlitia", which would be funded by state resources and wouldn't be subject to being "federalized" by people like Bush. That way, we could give hopefully give an avenue for dedicated young people to really help our state and avoid any drafts that this criminal could throw at us down the road.

[Duer 157099]

6. It surely will

3 strikes and all that.

In early 2001 FEMA identified the 3 most likely disasters to strike the US (I keep reading that but so far have not seen the reference to original source):

1) attack on NY
2) hurricane in New Orleans
3) earthquake in SF

So.... we're due. Judging by how the gov't handled the first 2 events...

In talking about the flood in N.O. with my sister, she said "well, they shouldn't have been living in a flood zone" and of course I countered "OK, that's what they'll say about you when the quake hits" (she lives in So. Cal). Then I heard silence.