Premature post mortem
All these people who are second-guessing the relief efforts currently under way must have access to a lot more information than I've been able to find. Hell, I don't feel like I can even get any reliable, up-to-the-date news from NOLA, much less enough data to accurately diagnose all the inadequacies of the relief efforts.
I'm quite sure mistakes are being made. I'm quite sure that when the post mortem is done there will be plenty of problems found and plenty of blame to go around. We'll learn that we should have turned left instead of right at one junction, and north instead of south at another. No doubt about it!
But right now? I don't know what's going on, except that it's a disaster of biblical proportions, complicated by logistics that are beyond nightmarish. Whether the relief efforts are ultimately found to be lacking or not, it isn't the kind of situation that we can realistically expect a prompt remedy for four days later. Sorry, that's just the sad fact. I'd like to think that with the right government policy and the proper level of preparedness that we should be able to snap our fingers and make it all better. Much as I'd love to believe it though, it ain't reality.