State Blocked Red Cross From Providing Food & Water

Major Garrett at Fox News Channel had a big story today, which he discussed on Hugh Hewitt's radio show after giving his report on TV this afternoon. The transcript of the interview is now posted at the site of Hugh's producer Duane (linked above).

In a nutshell, the Red Cross was ready to move in with relief supplies for the Super Dome and Convention Center in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane but were ordered not to enter the city by the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security, which didn't want to attract more people to that area, but wanted the people trapped there to evacuate rather than receive any services.

Unfortunately, an unknown number of people died of dehydration or other problems in the days before the evacuation could be accomplished.

It's also a bit puzzling why the state wouldn't want more people to come to that area, the natural staging ground to evacuate people from the city in the wake of the disaster. Did they want the people not there already to remain in their homes?

Garrett will be working on further developing this story. In the meantime, with each day it becomes more apparent that the state and city bungled the hurricane from start to finish and then rushed to blame the federal government, which is not the designated "first responder" for emergencies in any state. Indeed, if the President had tried to overrule the governor and order the evacuation himself or move troops in without her permission, we'd probably be hearing Democrats talking this week about impeaching the President for violating the Constitution.