PASTE STANDARD REPLY HERE.
I think it is pointless to try and figure who is responsible for the levees breaking and what not...they have been there for a long time, but nobody had done anything to improve them. There is a long list of responsibility...too long to discuss.
Therefore I will address how the disaster was handled AFTER the levees broke....particularly the looting and other chaos. There are many parties that share in the blame of this travesty.
1. The people of NO. During the North East black-out which was a disaster which encompassed many more people, rioting and looting did not break out...even though it was a choice opportunity. Likewise during 911 there was no widespread looting even though the entire financial district of NY was buried under inches of powdered concrete dust for weeks.
So why is there looting in NO? I am not enough of a sociologist to figure this one out...but clearly the people actually doing the stealing and shooting are responsible. First and foremost.
2. The Mayor...It is HIS city. It is HIS responsibility. By putting all of the burden for fixing the disaster on the government, he made the same mistake that Bilandik made during the 1979 Blizzard.
http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago...snowstorms.html
Unlike other Chicago blizzards Bilandik made no appeal to the public to help out...to help the government help them. So the people just looked for the gov't to save them. Problem was, the blizzard was WAY beyond the ability of the government to deal with without the support of the people. Very similar to what has transpired in NO.
3. The Governor. It's the largest city in her state. Once the levies broke it was clear that the "shoot to kill" order should have been issued immediately.
4. The Federal Gov't. Call it Bush...call it FEMA...call it whatever you will. I think we can all agree that faster action needed to be taken to restore order.
That is all I have to say about that.