Total control yields total paralysis.

Perhaps  enabling  local response is the way to go.

If you see a problem fix the MTF.  

Bill

Found this hopeful  note.

...............................
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0472355.htm
Alerting humanitarians to emergencies

World lines up to help after Katrina
05 Sep 2005 15:55:46 GMT

Source: Reuters

(Updates with Ireland, Spain)

Sept 5, (Reuters) - Hurricane Katrina has devastated New Orleans and
U.S. Gulf Coast states, killing hundreds of people and possibly
thousands, and drawing support pledges from rich and poor, traditional
friends and foes of the United States.

The United States, a major world donor itself, last week let it be known
it would accept help from a variety of nations.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice decided "no offer that can help
alleviate the suffering of the people in the afflicted area will be
refused."

Some 60 nations have offered help, from longtime American friends such
as Japan, Germany, Canada, France and Britain as well as Cuban President
Fidel Castro, who is willing to donate doctors and medicine. The
Venezuelan government, frequently criticised by the Bush administration,
has also offered help.

Thailand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, countries that suffered their own
devastation during the tsunami on Dec. 26, also offered support.

International organisations and religious institutions also offered help
ranging from medical teams to tents to cash donations. They include
NATO, the Organization of American States, the U.N. High Commissioner
for Refugees, the World Health Organisation, the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Cor Unum, the
Vatican's central charity organisation. The United Nations has offered
to help coordinate international relief.

Following is a list of some of the aid offered.

ASIA

AUSTRALIA: "We're going to provide A$10 million and the bulk of that
money, if not all of it, will go to the American Red Cross," said
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

CHINA: China offered $5 million in aid for victims. If needed, the
government is also prepared to send rescue workers, including medical
experts, officials said. State-controlled CNOOC, the country's top
offshore oil and gas producer which was forced to drop a bid for Unocal
after opposition from U.S. Congress, said it would match donations from
its employees.

JAPAN: Will provide $200,000 to the American Red Cross to assist
victims, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said. Japan will also identify
needs in affected regions via the U.S. government and will provide up to
$300,000 in emergency supplies if it receives requests for such
assistance, the ministry said.

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Armed Forces, responding to requests by the
United States Texas Army National Guard, has sent three Chinook
helicopters to Fort Polk, Louisiana, to help in relief efforts. The
government said the Chinooks will help to ferry supplies and undertake
airlift missions.

THAILAND: Thailand has offered to send 100 doctors and nurses to
hurricane-ravaged New Orleans. "We have made the offer to them and they
have accepted and said thank you," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
said.

SOUTH KOREA: Will send $30 million in aid, which includes private
donations. Will dispatch a 50-person rescue team and if the U.S. needs
foreign troops, parliament will discuss whether to send South Korean
soldiers.

BANGLADESH: Offered $1.0 million donation as humanitarian aid, the
foreign ministry said.

SRI LANKA: Will donate $25,000 to the American Red Cross.

AMERICAS

CANADA: Defence Minister Bill Graham has indicated that three warships
and a coast guard vessel are being loaded with relief supplies and 1,000
personnel. They will be ready to travel to Louisiana as required in the
coming days.

CUBA: Cuban President Fidel Castro offered to fly 1,100 doctors to
Houston with 26 tonnes of medicine to treat victims.

MEXICO: Is sending 15 truckloads of water, food and medical supplies via
Texas and the Mexican navy has offered to send two ships, two
helicopters and 15 amphibious vehicles.

VENEZUELA: President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the United States,
offered to send cheap fuel, humanitarian aid and relief workers to the
disaster area.

EUROPE:

BRUSSELS: The European Union and NATO said they had received official
requests from the United States to provide emergency assistance for the
victims of Hurricane Katrina. The United States has asked for first aid
kits, blankets, water trucks, and 500,000 prepared meals, the EU
executive Commission said.

The Commission's Civil Protection Mechanism will coordinate member
states' offers and U.S. needs. An EU field coordinator will be appointed
this week.

AUSTRIA - Crisis team in Houston, Texas. Dirty water pumps, 300 camp
beds.

BELGIUM - Three medical teams, civil engineering team, diving team.

BRITAIN: Britain is sending 500,000 military ration packs to areas hit
by Katrina. Medical experts, marine engineers and high-volume pumps,
various engineers.

DENMARK - Water purification units.

FINLAND - Thirty-member search and rescue team.

FRANCE: Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said France was ready to
offer help. "We have rescue teams based in the Caribbean and we are
naturally ready to provide aid to the Americans, and that is what we
have told them," he said. Paris has readied 300 tents, 980 field beds
and other material.

GERMANY: Over the weekend, Germany sent two German army Airbus planes to
the United States, loaded with a combined 25 tonnes of food rations.
America has asked for logistical specialists, pumps, drinking water,
water filters, generators, emergency dwellings, blankets and medical aid.

IRELAND - Initial assistance of 1 million euros.

ITALY: Has offered to send aid and evacuation specialists, Italy's civil
protection unit said. Authorities have prepared two military transport
planes to fly amphibious vessels, pumps, generators, tents and personnel
to New Orleans and other areas.

LUXEMBOURG - Prepared 1,000 camp beds, 2,000 blankets.

MALTA - Material and cash. No details.

NETHERLANDS: Will provide teams for inspecting dykes and for identifying
victims if there is a formal request from the United States. It will
also send a frigate from Curacao to New Orleans shortly to provide
emergency assistance, the government said.

ROMANIA - Two teams of medical experts.

RUSSIA - Will send three planes on either Monday or Tuesday.

The planes will carry medical dressings, food, tents, blankets, drinking
water and portable electricity generators.

SWEDEN - First aid kits, blankets, meals ready to eat, two water
purification plants plus instructors. Equipment to restore cell phone
net in disaster areas.

SPAIN: Is prepared to grant any formal U.S. request for gasoline stocks,
an Industry Ministry spokesman said. Also organising delivery of items
such as military-type meals, batteries and medicines.

SWEDEN: The Rescue Authority said it was on stand-by to supply water
purifying equipment, healthcare supplies and emergency shelters if
needed.

MIDDLE EAST

IRAN: Offers to send humanitarian aid to a country that has labelled it
part of the "axis of evil." "The victims have complained about the lack
of timely assistance and we are prepared to send our contributions to
the people through the Red Crescent," said Foreign Ministry spokesman
Hamid Reza Asefi.

ISRAEL: Sending health and defence officials to the U.S. to help
coordinate aid.

QATAR: Pledged $100 million in aid to the disaster victims, the official
QNA news agency reported.

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Refining, a Houston-based subsidiary of state oil
firm Saudi Aramco, will donate $5 million to the American Red Cross to
support relief efforts.

KUWAIT - Wealthy OPEC nation Kuwait is donating $500 million worth of
oil products and other humanitarian aid, news agency KUNA reported.

BAHRAIN - Pledged $5 million to aid hurricane victims.

INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES, ORGANISATIONS

RED CROSS/RED CRESCENT: The Geneva-based International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies is sending some 80 disaster experts
from more than 10 countries in response to a call from the American Red
Cross. They will support volunteers providing food and shelter, the
Federation said.

COR UNUM: Pope Benedict announced he had asked the Vatican's central
charity organisation, Cor Unum, to coordinate Catholic aid for hurricane
victims. "We have all been pained in the last few days by the disaster
caused by the hurricane in the United States of America, particularly in
New Orleans," Benedict said.

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations announced the United States had
accepted its aid offer and said its staff will be based at the USAID
Hurricane Operations Center, where international assistance is being
coordinated. They "are ready to provide emergency staff and a wide
variety of relief supplies as and when necessary," the U.N. statement
said.

(For more news about emergency relief visit Reuters AlertNet
http://www.alertnet.org email: alertnet@reuters.com; +44 207 542 2432)

Boggle seems to be our nature.

Bill

...........

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
L.B.J.'s Political Hurricane
By BRIAN WILLIAMS
Published: September 24, 2005
New Orleans
GIVEN President Bush's final decision not to head to Texas in advance of
Hurricane Rita, it's worth noting that American presidents have long
found both political riches and peril at the scene of a storm. A listen
to the tapes of President Lyndon B. Johnson's White House telephone
conversations of 40 years ago reveals that history does indeed repeat
itself, even if presidential reactions and motivations have varied
widely.
On the evening of Sept. 9, 1965, Hurricane Betsy, a Category 4 storm,
roared into Louisiana with winds of up to 160 miles per hour. The next
day, President Johnson followed coverage of the damage, watching the
three television sets in the Oval Office and monitoring the news service
wires clacking away inside the soundproof cabinet next to his desk.
Then, at 2:36 in the afternoon, Senator Russell Long of Louisiana, son
of the legendary Huey Long, called the president and urged him to come
to New Orleans. Floodwaters had spilled over the levees, and
three-quarters of New Orleans was under water.
The senator opened with a geography lesson. "Mr. President, aside from
the Great Lakes, the biggest lake in America is Lake Pontchartrain," he
said. "It is now drained dry. That Hurricane Betsy picked up the lake
and up and put it inside New Orleans and Jefferson Parish." Long said
that his own house had been destroyed, but that his true concern was "my
people - oh, they're in tough shape."
Not fully convinced that his message had gotten through to his old
friend and fellow Southerner, Long chose the most direct route to
Johnson's famously weak heart: electoral politics. "If you want to go to
Louisiana right now - you lost that state last year ... you could save
yourself a campaign speech," the senator insisted. "Just go there right
now and say, 'My God, this is horrible! These federally constructed
levees that Hale Boggs and Russell Long built is the only thing that
saved 5,000 lives!' "
Johnson replied that he had a "hell of a two days" ahead on his
schedule, so Long went in for the kill: "If you go there right now, Mr.
President, they couldn't beat you if Eisenhower ran!"
Minutes later, Johnson had his staff make arrangements for a trip to New
Orleans. He explained in a phone call to his director of emergency
planning, Buford Ellington, that the people of Louisiana "feel like
nobody cares about them, and they voted against us, and they feel like
they're kind of on the outside." Johnson added, "I feel about them like
a 17-year-old girl; I want them to know they're loved." At 5:18 p.m.,
Air Force One took off from Andrews Air Force Base.
Approaching New Orleans, the 707 made a low pass over the city. On
board, the delegation included Senator Long and Representative Hale
Boggs, who described the damage over the aircraft's public address
system. After landing, with a 25 m.p.h. wind still blowing and no power
for the loudspeakers that had been set up, Johnson was forced to shout
his arrival statement. His words nonetheless bordered on the poetic: "I
am here because I wanted to see with my own eyes what the unhappy
alliance of wind and water have done to this land and its people."
The presidential motorcade drove down Canal Street, broken store windows
lining both sides, and made several stops. Johnson spoke with bystanders
and toured a shelter packed with storm victims. An aide wrote, "Most of
the people inside and outside of the building were Negro ... the people
all about were bedraggled and homeless ... thirsty and hungry."
At one point, a woman rushed up to the president to tell him that both
of her sons had drowned. The next day's New York Times reported,
"according to Bill D. Moyers, the presidential press secretary, Mr.
Johnson was 'almost overcome.' " He watched the stream of evacuees who
had been rescued by boat from the rooftops of their houses and were now
on foot, carrying whatever possessions were left.
When another woman asked the president for drinking water, Johnson
dispatched a Secret Service agent to make sure it was delivered. An
entry in the White House travel diary paints a grim picture: "Calls of
'water - water - water' were resounded over and over again in terribly
emotional wails from voices of all ages." The president suggested that
local soft drink bottlers (in an era before bottled water was an
American staple) make their inventory available. Seventy-five people
died in the storm, most of them in the city. Hurricane Betsy caused $1.4
billion in damage.
Lingering bad weather made a planned flight to Baton Rouge impossible.
At 8:29 p.m., a little over 24 hours after the eye of the storm came
ashore, Air Force One lifted off from New Orleans. En route home, the
president of the United States retired to his stateroom on the plane,
changed into pajamas and went to bed.
Senator Russell Long was not on that flight back to Washington. He had
stayed in New Orleans. The scion of Louisiana political royalty had lost
his home to the storm, but had delivered the ultimate prize to his
people: a visit by the president, and a promise of federal aid to build
up the levees surrounding his beloved city.
Brian Williams is the anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News."