Again, this is something that others are able to keep up to speed with much better than I am able to. But I do have a few observations, though I'm not sure they are unique.

It's the most destructive natural disaster to strike the United States since the earthquake that destroyed San Francisco almost a hundred years ago. It's beginning to look like it ranks up there close to the South Asian Tsunami, though not as widespread. Your heart has to go out to all those whose lives have been affected by this calamity.

The earthquake in San Francisco was followed by the fire, which made it worse. In this case, it is the flooding and the looting/anarchy. Anyone who says anarchy is somehow kewl or will be pleasant only needs to look at real-life situations where law and a sense of order breaks down, supply & support breaks down, and people feel they can get away with whatever they want, including killing people with impunity who might try to stop them. Also, those who tend to think of looting as only a “property crime” that can be ignored in a situation like this, as apparently the local & State government officials did in the beginning, have been given a sober reminder that once people get the sense that law has broken down, anything goes. Thus there have been people going into hospitals in search of drugs like oxycontin, shooting at doctors and nurses, and more (more below on that).

On the other side of the coin are the people who are just trying to survive, not use it as an opportunity to make a killing stealing whatever isn't nailed down, but who can't get the help they need and can't get out. Dead litter the sides of highways and float in the water and aren't being cleaned up because what assistance there is naturally has focused on helping the living.

A lot of finger pointing can be made, from slow response, poor preparation in the immediate advance of the hurricane, to failure to construct levies of appropriate strength years beforehand, even though it was known something like this might happen, gambling (I guess a Louisiana past-time), the local & state authorities "saved" money in the short term by not going forward with needed engineering projects, thus costing people so much now.

Also, for as much criticism as Rudi Guiliani comes into, especially for his "Law and order" "fascism", when Manhattan was evacuated in the wake of Sept. 11 and there was a chance order could break down there and looting take over, that didn't happen, because of good city leadership which clamped down on any hint of it (and there was some), as well as providing sound leadership in organizing the entire recovery effort, moving millions off then back on to Manhattan while dealing with the crisis itself. There doesn't seem to be that in New Orleans. The looters and other lawless elements are making it too dangerous for emergency services, ambulances and the like, to reach people in many areas, because of lack of security. This isn't some harmless thing that only costs insurance companies or taxpayers (who will "foot the bill" for the damage as everything is written off). It's costing lives. Boaters who went out to try and rescue people today got called back when their lives were threatened by lawless bands. That means that innocent people who need help didn't get it, because of a relative few thugs. One of the major problems with the leadership in New Orleans, unlike NYC during 9/11, is they thought looters was just a property thing, no big deal, but it turns out that those who get away with looting with impunity will feel free to do other, more violent acts, as well, creating an atmosphere of mayhem. Only too late are the authoritahs learning the price of this folly - and that price is being measured, as is usual with such things, in other people's lives, not in "mere property". People who didn't have to die are thus dying, be it from being directly killed by thugs or indirectly because relief cannot reach them because of the danger such mayhem creates.

Also, though, as much as we sympathize with people's plight, as we should, we can't let people off the hook. Unlike the Tsunami or 9/11, there was advance warning. People were told to evacuate, but many many did not. Too many of these didn't precisely because they saw it as a potential opportunity (for looting and a "holiday" of sorts), others because, well, people have become jaded abut such things here in the States and many have come to dismiss the dangers and feel they can ride it out. Well, again, that might have been a gamble that "paid off" much of the time, over many hurricanes in the past, but it only takes one to take your life, or the lives of your loved ones. This includes people who build, and are allowed (even encouraged) to build, lovely homes right on the coast or in barrier islands, where they are destroyed by hurricanes and then rebuilt at the expense of others. This creates a moral hazard in and of itself and has encouraged more people than might otherwise to live on beaches that are, yes, beautiful, but dangerous.

Right now, it's the much-hated American military that is providing much of the significant recovery help, getting their fastest with the most, as it did in South Asia after the Tsunami: helicopters in particular, from the Navy and Army, are reaching people, and it's Army engineers that are working on controlling the flooding. Most likely it will also be military medical units that move in to support the local health workers in this, indeed they are doing that now. But it's tough going because of the scale of the disaster and sheer number of people needing assistance.

And all that last part said, it's clear that Homeland Security^tm is still a joke. But we knew that already. It's gotta do better at things like this.