Monday, October 10, 2005

What were they afraid of, part 3

Via email, Reason Online has another report showing how false reports of violence in New Orleans were. This story features an interview with a National Guardsman who was at the superdome and was in charge of checking stories and dispelling the false rumors that were spreading among the evacuees.

The question now is, "What does this imply about our hurricane response?" It certainly means that the impulse to send in storm troopers with shoot to kill orders was wrongly placed. It also means that the suburban communities had no reason to seal off evacuation paths.

This doesn't let FEMA off the hook, though. There were no murders at the superdome. There may have even been a lot fewer deaths from poor medical conditions than initially reported. Still, that is no excuse to leave tens of thousands of people in a squalid refugee camp because you can't get your act together.

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