Who is in charge of the Response to the Katrina Disaster?

Is there any one person in charge of organizing the rescue of victims of Hurricane Katrina? Why have not helicopters been sent immediately with emergency supplies to land on the highways near the Superdome so that victims who could walk to that location could at least obtain water and food? Why have not helicopters delivered water and food to the local highways was countless people have been stranded without being able to return home or to move one way or another?

Why have trucks full of supplies been sent to every single county in every single state affected by this disaster?

Why have rescue boats not patrolled flooded New Orleans and rescued people and sought out sounds of trapped people inside their own residences?

Why have the authorities not moved fast on this? Is there no one in charge? What the hell is the Army Corps of Engineers doing to stop the breach in those levees? If the Army Corps of Engineers is not up to the task, why not call in someone who can get things done, and done quickly? Offer ten million dollars to the President of Bechtel if he stops the water by noon, and watch it get done. Who is responsible for the failure to get things done?

The world’s mightiest and wealthiest nation is heavy on technology and weak on leadership and initiative to solve this horrendous human tragedy.

People are suffering and people are dying. No one in the White House should sleep this week. They are all well-rested. The President and Vice-President need to force the action, force results and not be satisfied until all loose ends are tied from New Orleans to Florida and Georgia as long as people are in peril. Someone capable needs to be put in charge and they need to crack the whip and get supplies delivered pronto and get people moved to safety and to reasonable emergency accommodations.

Why are not city parks being set up with hundreds of tents, with shower facilities and cooking facilities to take care of people? Why are buses not being sent to rescue stranded motorists to take them to shelter?

Why are hospitals in New Orleans having such difficulty in evacuating seriously ill patients?

This is 2005 in the richest country in the world. We should be capable of doing far more in less time than we have done. We need leadership, and it should spring from the White House. Regrettably, we have a slacker in the White House who spends too much time on personal physical exercise, but what the hell are his assistants doing?

Surely there is some Army Command Sergeant Major or Colonel or somebody who can be put in charge of this thing, kick ass, and get things done. Now is the time, and time is wasting. People are suffering; people are crying, and people are dying.