"The volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented"

Post-Gazette.com had an enlightening article up this weekend. To sum:

• "The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."
• "[Journalists] libel as a "national disgrace" the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history."
• "We do not yet have teleporter or replicator technology like you saw on 'Star Trek' in college between hookah hits and waiting to pick up your worthless communications degree while the grown-ups actually engaged in the recovery effort were studying engineering." Ouch...
• "The United States military can wipe out the Taliban and the Iraqi Republican Guard far more swiftly than they can bring 3 million Swanson dinners to an underwater city through an area the size of Great Britain which has no power, no working ports or airports, and a devastated and impassable road network."
• "The levee broke Tuesday morning. Buses had to be rounded up and driven from Houston to New Orleans across debris-strewn roads. The first ones arrived Wednesday evening. That seems pretty fast to me."

I could go on, but read the article for yourself. Very interesting take on things. Again, I'm sure there are things that could have gone better on the local, state, and federal level. Letting Brown go from FEMA was a good political move and probably needed to be done with all of the bad press. But, as stated in the article, the relief effort has been "unprecedented."