Originally Posted by spunkmaster

The redCross at redcross.org said the state told FEMA "NOT" to let them in
with food and water.

The state department of homeland security also told the coast guard "NOT" to air drop
food and water to the superdome and convention center.

Here's the bottom line:

FEMA only has 2500 employees and they had them spread over FL, LA, MS and AL
and they are not set up as first responders and this was a democrat idea sponsored by Joe Liberman and pass by congress with a 99% vote.

If you want to change this set up and make them first responders you have to hire thousands of fed employees and you have to ammend federal laws allowing the President to use federal troops to go into states without their permission. You will also have to give them permission to issue evacuation orders against state and city wishes so keep this in mind when you think about it. You also have to have federal marshal law declared by the President and a slew of new laws to do most of this and I doubt 50% want Bush to declare this and the other 50% don't want Hillary Clinton to declare this so think about it really hard before you change all these laws.