Katrina comments from BBC readers

[Glenda]

Some I posted last night (I just posted non-US posts):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4637876

and you can read them all here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4207856.stm

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I sat stunned watching reporters talking to victims who hadn't had food or water for two days. They can get reporters in but not food and water? They can drop sandbags but not food or water? Something is sorely amiss here.
Geoff , Dubai, UAE

The disaster response system in the US is embarrassing. Even our impoverished, third world countries tend to catastrophic events with much swifter action. Perhaps because we're actually experienced. This should humble an arrogant first-world. This might be the time to call out for our help.
Andreji, Bogota, Colombia

Please correct me if I'm wrong... but I'm sure it was only a year or so ago that a hurricane hit a string of Caribbean islands. Before the hurricane had hit the Royal Navy sent ships to the area which arrived within hours of the hurricane passing. How come the American government didn't have the foresight to do the same?
James , St. Albans

I guarantee the response would have been immediate if the disaster zone had been Washington. A classic example yet again of inequality - after all they are only poor people. A total disgrace.
Norman , Truro, UK

I'm quite amazed to see the troops going in carrying rifles 'locked and loaded'. Surely they should be carrying food, water and shovels?
Gordon, Fife, Scotland

The USA is the richest country in the world. It is the richest country this world has ever known. This is not the same as disaster in the third world. We need to ask what their government's priorities are if this is how they treat their own people. What nonsense is this 24 hours to clear emergency funds from congress?
margaret, Edinburgh Scotland

Anyone who does not believe the Authorities/FEMA were fully aware of the inevitability of this disaster should read the excellent article about the destruction of New Orleans in the National Geographic magazine. The Bush administration had previously balked at the USD 14 billion price tag associated with the Louisiana Coastal Area project to help preserve the wetlands which help protect the New Orleans area from flood. Was this article just "I told you so" hindsight? No. It was published in October 2004! (page 92).
Nick P, Basildon, Essex

The sheer impotence of the US authorities is breathtaking. This is particularly true when one considers the fact that they knew about the hurricane in advance. One can accept the huge scale of the disaster and the incumbent problems but this is the US of A we're talking about...the Big Cheese, the richest and most powerful nation on earth and it has left its citizens to the whims of nature and the mob. If I was a US citizen I would be seriously questioning the competency of my elected officials.
Graham , Southampton, Hampshire

To those of you asking where the UN is, they have said: "The United Nations stands ready to assist the government and people of the United States. The UN responds to disasters upon requests from national governments? The UN has not been requested to assist in this case."? It seems that the Federal Government have even been too shocked, or too dazed, or too proud to think of asking for help. And please don't think the global community is silent or indifferent to the plight of the people in America, but just as your government has clearly taken time to realise the scale of this, so has the rest of the world. Please believe that our thoughts are with the people who have suffered through this tragedy.
Mattllo, UK

A few weeks before hurricane Katrina's devastation, India's financial capital Mumbai (aka.Bombay) was drowned completely by a 48-hour downpour, the heaviest recorded in the last 30 years. The Indian electronic media showed images of people helping shopkeepers save their merchandize, it showed people throwing open their doors to strangers who couldn't reach their homes, it showed slum dwellers, who themselves had lost everything, serving hot tea to those struggling back home wading through waist-deep waters. The Mumbai floods made heroes out of ordinary people. Watching images of the New Orleans disaster, nothing could have been so much in contrast. It brought tears to my eyes to see such tragedy.
Abhijit, Bangalore , India

This disaster and the aftermath has shown the world that US (the only Superpower in the world today) was so very underprepared like any other under developed or developing country facing similar situation. The United States of America, despite the resources at its doorstep could not prepare itself adequately for this disaster. It did well enough by warning its citizens to evacuate well before the Hurricane's land fall but that applied to people who could afford to do so. The pity was that the US Govt felt that it job was over once the warning had been issued to its citizens to leave the area.
Raja, Accra, Ghana

[valerief]

1. Now the world knows what life under BushCo is like

[Marr]

2. Exactly- that same disregard for the populace permeates

everything they do.

[Frustratedlady]

3. How Embarrassing!

That's like a family hanging our dirty laundry out for everyone to see.

Thanks, GW! Old Glory will never look the same to the world.

[Kurovski]

4. It won't be the same until we hold Bush accountable

for what he's done here and abroad.

only then can we begin to repair the damage, or stave off what else might be in store.

[MojoXN]

5. My God, they pity us...

As do I. What happened to America? Where did it go? Katrina washed away more than N.O. and the rest of the South, it washed away America.

MojoXN

[B Calm]

6. Bush is a total embarrassment to the US