and was totally involved at a fairly high level the Andrew response and, living where I do watched the response to Opal, Ivan and later Katrina. There are more myths about Katrina than there are about Britney Spears -- and most of them dead wrong. Katrina response was really pretty good and New Orleans peculiarities and the local political milieu caused most of the problems.

That said, the basic point -- that private industry responds more rapidly than does the Federal Government -- is quite true. What then arises is what motive would they have to assist everyone affected as opposed to restoring their service and customer base. While the government could contract for services, my experience with that is the contractors get as badly bureaucratic as the government that hire them.

It is not a simple task...