WHERE IS THE CAVALRY?

In the immortal words of Kate Hale, the Dade County emergency management director,

"WHERE IS THE CAVALRY?"

That was in 1992, after Hurricane Andrew wiped out the City of Homestead and nearly obliterated southern Dade County. What have the feds learned since then?

It has been three days since Katrina made landfall on New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulfport and other coastal communities. As I type this there are thousands of people stranded where they can't get out. People are dying by the minute. The hospitals are running out of supplies.

The government has helicopters, boats, amphibious craft, big trucks, and armored personnel carriers which can be used to bring food, water, and medical supplies and to carry people out. Where are they?

The impetus to take immediate action could have come from our Commander in Chief. The poor guy had to cut his month-long vacation short two days so he could fly over the disaster area on his way back to the White House. Meanwhile, whole dragoons of bureaucrats seem to be waiting for somebody to give them a request for help (the official excuse for non-action after Andrew), or orders, or authorization, or something.

Congress, which came back to town on a weekend to enact legislation for Terri Schiavo, might come back in a day or two to make a decision about Katrina. Fortunately for them, it is not necessary for all members of Congress to interrupt their vacations to return to Washington for this. They can approve the appropriation by a simple voice vote. The absentees are probably writing the statements they will insert in the Congressonal Records whenever they go back to work. You and I should have such jobs.

p.s.: After initially posting this, I watched CNN's reporting of successful rescues by emergency response teams from California. Imagine that: Rescue guys could bring boats and other gear from California and go into action faster than the federales. But I will give credit to one heroic group of federal officers - - the Coast Guard. The USCG is the most under-rated military branch we have. They have been heroic during and after Katrina, pulling people to safety.