Katrina relief question: OT

I know that hindsight is 20-20 (and that threads here can decay into
partisan mud-slinging (not that President Rove doesn't deserve it, mind
you)), but can anyone tell me why there weren't 10,000 national
guardsmen, the FEMA organization and a huge supply of relief goods
waiting in the wings in central Lousiana and Mississippi for the
aftermath of Katrina? We have known for years of the potential of
disaster from such an event as this, and we all knew for days that
Katrina had the very real potential of causing unprecedented mayhem.
The mayor of NO was astute enough to order a total evacuation well
enough in advance to get close to a million people out. FEMA should
have had a plan that could have been implemented to have relief ready
and waiting, prepared to descend on NO the very next morning.

As it stands, it sounds like it will take up to 7 days for the USNS
ship 'Comfort' to get on site, and several days even for the convoys of
vehicles to get organized to bring people out. The lack of supervisory
oversight after the fact makes me think that there was no previous plan
in place at all, and that they are making this up as they go along.

--riverman