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There is no doubt in my mind that the city, state, and federal response to the 30 to 50 thousand gathered at the Superdome, Convention Center, and freeway overpasses could have and should have been faster. Even though General Honore said that he was in place after the storm and couldn't get there any sooner and that first responders were becoming victims themselves. I hesitate to second guess the commander at the scene but maybe he was wrong and just needed some crews to clear the roads for him or something.

After watching the news reports on CNN, MSNBC and FOX, one would get the impression that the loss of life was much greater. I am surprised that the survival rate of this disaster was as high as it is. I saw a report that they were sending something like 30,000 body bags to N.O. amid reports that people were dying in droves from lack of water and medical attention. The final fatality number is still coming in but it appears that there are less than 1000 dead in the entire region with 10 fatalities total from the Superdome and Convention Center. I think one reason so many were saved is because of the job the Coast Guard, etc was doing picking people up from rooftops etc..

My family is originally from Louisiana and I am retired so I had a lot of time to watch the major news reports during this disaster aftermath. My impression from these news reports was that there would be tens of thousands of fatalities. The reporters were going out of their way to make the situation look worse than it was by repeating false rumors and embellishing their reports. I hate to say it but I think they were doing this because it makes for good television and higher ratings.

There is also no doubt in my mind that there would have been far fewer fatalities if the city/state officials had evacuated people ahead of the storm. Maybe the feds should have provided assistance with this since so many people had no transportation. Now that we have had time to evaluate what really happened I have the following observations:

- The people who made it to the Superdome and CC were very fortunate even though help took so long to reach them. The city should have had provisions for them there.

- The job that the local/state does prior to the disaster saves many more lives than anything the feds can do later.

- The feds should anticipate the local breakdown in police support during the aftermath and plan accordingly. I am surprised that so many officers abandoned ship.

- The national response to the victims of this disaster is tremendous.