What i don't get about Katrina

Maybe i'm thickheaded, naive, stupid or whatever.  But there is something very firghtening that i just can't understand about Katrina.  My question is:

How is it possible that with all the alerts we're given about potential terrorist attacks of catastrophic proportions that this country doesn't have an immediate, coordinated response procedure in place to bring in water, food, shelter, transportation and security to people within 24 hours at any time.  But i'll go one better, how do we not have that procedure in place when there is a full week's notice of the catastrophe in an area that is well-known to be particularly susceptible to horific damage?  This is totally insane to me and impossible to understand. 

If anyone can answer this question, please do.  I'm pretty sure i'm not the only one asking it.

Comments

[Matt]

The problem really is not a problem of readiness, it is driven by psycology of "Nothing in recent history of this level of catastrophe has happened, so we are busy dealing with day to day BS, instead of planning for something we don't know will happen". A week ahead of time - yes that a big problem. But Wyoming probably doesn't expect a terrorist attack - and if one did occur there, people would again talk about why weren't we prepared?! The simple answer is because we don't think we need to be. We spread our resources thin to cover the major items - statue of liberty, tall buildings airports, water sources - but beyond that there simply isn't the ability to protect and be prepared all over. It almost feels like an ugly case of the roman empire where they became fat complacent and lazy - to the extent they couldn't protect their home country let alone their grip on the known world.

But back to Hurricanes and other disasters. Lets talk about Tsunamis. Bet all those countries in SW Asia weren't expecting that let alone were prepared for it. They had no advanced warning network in the one place on earth where Tsunamis have historically happened? Why? Because the people in charge don't feel that it is an active threat - until I guess your entire Tourist Economy is wiped out in a matter of hours - then I bet they stand up in listen. This somewhat touches on people in general and how we all have 2 agendas - our agenda for ourselves and our agenda for others, people can be driven by their own agenda over the needs of others which has them VACATIONING FOR 5 WEEKS - you know living the good life, while our country deals with natural disaster. I didn't hear Bush say sh*t a week before the hurricane. Oh no wait - he released some strategic oil reserves from his Crawford ranch, thats right. Gotta keep that bank account growing. Anyhow - I'm going to go enjoy my Roman-esque lifestyle and go lay out by the pool.