Funding for Preparedness 

One has to assume that the lack of preparedness shown in dealing with Katrina, a natural disaster, would have been the same as if the tragedy had been the result of a terrorist attack. (One day - God forbid - terrorists might twig that using the power of nature could be a smart move.) So what happened to the argument, (and presumabley the funding accompanying it), that a terrorist attack was not a matter of if, but when? Our PM is just as fond of saying that as Bush. Funding and protecting infrastructure, looking after the environment locally and as part of the global community, and settting up and fostering care and preparedness within communities, is money as well spent in combatting terrorism as throwing military might around in the wrong places and introducing laws that erode civil liberties.

Damage control 

Michael: 'Of couse now the White House has gone into damage control -- not to control damage caused by flood, plague and pestilence, but to control the political damage'.

Community action 

I had been worrying about not seeing individuals and community groups mobilizing help for the victims of Hurricane Katrina off their own bat. In Australia, I think it''s likely it would have been truckies, fishermen, rural fire service volunteers and bus companies descending on the place from interstate. It's the sign of humanity you look for. We saw it when Canberra suffered a disastrous bushfire in 2003. Not interstaters so much, but the local radio taking on the central information role, and the evacuation centres being inundated with every type of thing needed. All the school canteen people went into overdrive making meals for the firefighters, and so on.

Luckily I bit my tongue, because those kinds of stories of goodwill and community spirit are beginning to emerge. I'm so glad. But I am absolutely dumbfounded that it appears that many such gestures were thwarted by officials turning people back. Can it really be that the Red Cross itself has been disallowed from taking in emergency food and water? Maybe if I wait a few more days again, I will find it wasn't true or there was a good reason for it?

In Australia we are not used to guns being freely available in the community. To have guns added into the general chaos of a disaster like Katrina seems an absolute nightmare.