A SAMPLING OF FLORIDA OPINION

From the St. Petersburg Times:

There have been many individual acts of heroism, and the National Guard finally arrived on Friday with a large convoy of trucks with food. Eventually, order will be restored, but it took too long and allowed too much suffering. When it counted, no one was in charge of rescuing New Orleans from a predictable fate. Not the mayor, not the governor, not the engineering experts or the agencies created to answer such calls for help. Not even the president of the United States rushed to take charge of this tragedy, and that is a pitiful state of affairs.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

...the streets of New Orleans are now out of control. On Friday thousands remained trapped in their homes and evacuation centers.

What's missing here is leadership.

One leader needs to take control of this situation. And that should be a federal official, since it's clear that the state and local officials aren't up to it.

The most obvious person to do that is Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown. He has the authority to pull together all the resources needed to stabilize the situation.

From the Miami Herald:

There have been failures at every level of government to react to these twin disasters, whose victims all need life-sustaining supplies and shelter. To be fair, the enormous breadth of this dual catastrophe has complicated and hampered relief work. Still, the ultimate responsibility for the deplorable, sometimes fatal conditions on the Gulf Coast this week lies mostly with the federal government. It could have done much more, much quicker -- but it didn't.

From the South Florida Sun Sentinel:

Who's to blame? Take your pick.

Start with Mayor Ray Nagin, who angrily blames the federal government, but who mindlessly directed thousands of people to the Superdome and the convention center with no plan to get them out or even care for them. Gov. Kathleen Blanco also failed to anticipate the scope of a catastrophe that many people saw coming.

Where is the Federal Emergency Management Agency? The incompetence of FEMA director Michael Brown is on display again. The agency not only is failing miserably in New Orleans, but is refusing to help legitimate South Florida victims of the same storm after throwing away more than $30 million last year on relief for a storm that didn't even hit the region.

And then there is President Bush, our minister of vacations. As early as last Sunday morning, the whole world knew a catastrophe was bearing down on the Gulf Coast. Yet our "leader" remained at his Texas ranch, no doubt "clearing brush." On Tuesday, two days after the catastrophe was anticipated and one day after it actually occurred, Bush was in California, strumming a guitar to celebrate the 60th anniversary of V-J Day.

If only hurricanes were wars, maybe Bush could have gotten worked up over Katrina. Instead, he was so un-worked up that he didn't make it to the stricken region until Friday, three days too late to show the kind of leadership desperate people desperately needed.

The Tampa Tribune:

Washington's snail- like response to the collapse of New Orleans indicates that giving the Department of Homeland Security control over national disasters has itself been a disaster.

Granted, the breaching of the levees after the hurricane caught everyone off guard. But the prospect of a major hurricane swamping the city was well- known. And it's now clear the federal emergency officials were either woefully unprepared or have bungled the relief effort.