Finally, some relief and a few answers!

As relief is FINALLY reaching the people trapped in New Orleans, some answers are also arising.

**Why are people shooting at the helicopters and other people that are just trying to help them? (And why is nobody shooting back at the snipers?) As Carley pointed out in her post, when people get dehydrated, the mind doesn't work quite as well. Confusion sets in. Behavior can get irrational. I know some people ended up being cut off from medications they shouldn't be off of as well. That can also cause behavior to get irrational. And one story I read guessed that maybe they were shooting just to get the attention of the helicopters so they could also get rescued.

**How is it that the media can get in there to do stories, but nobody else is getting in there to get those people out? I found a message board where a gal who lives 60 miles from New Orleans told me stories about how news crews that could get in and out were taking some folks out - one or two at a time. To not exploit that fact is very cool in my book.

**Where the hell are these buses that are supposed to be taking people from the Superdome? They're finally there. For some reason, they have stopped again today with reports of about 2,000 people left. There's no answers yet as to what took so long.

**And what is this I keep hearing they anticipate they aren't going to have enough buses??!?!? WTF?!?!?? GET MORE FUCKIN' BUSES!!!! They were doing a great job getting people out up until today. (See above point.)

**What is this I'm hearing about the mayor of New Orleans giving people "permission" to march across a bridge? If they have foot traffic access to somewhere, why aren't they going there? Why are they being held and trapped at the Superdome? Some people WERE walking out of the city. I don't know why others weren't. I suppose since they were told to go to the Superdome, they figured their best bet was to stay there?

**Why is it taking the engineers sooooo long to block the breached levees? They did get one area blocked, but were having trouble getting equipment to other areas to put items in place to block the breaches.

**And why is it taking so long to mobilize the National Guard or any other help for these people? Still looking for answers on this one. Governors for other states are telling the media they offered help, but couldn't send any help without an official request. ("Several states say they were willing to send troops to help in the Gulf Coast relief, but didn't get a go ahead until days after the storm struck. The governor of New Mexico says he offered troops before Katrina hit but didn't get clearance from Washington until Thursday. The head of the Michigan National Guard says he was ready to send in police units but couldn't without a request.") If the president could declare many areas federal disaster areas BEFORE the hurricane hit, to me that meant plans were already in place to mobilize National Guard troops to help with disaster relief. Why it took so long is still a mystery and I hope that question gets answered appropriately.