Add a Little Incompetence to Corruption
A recipe for disaster

FEMA continues to show how well prepared we are to handle catastrophic events four years after 9/11. See Storm Hit Little, but Aid Flowed to Inland City in the NYT. Millions of dollars went to residents of Jackson, Mississippi, whose citizens rarely suffered more than spoiled food in their refrigerators.

FEMA, which is leading the $62 billion Hurricane Katrina relief effort, has been criticized as responding slowly to the disaster and then wasting recovery money. In defending the payments in the Jackson area, the agency and the Red Cross cited the tensions between moving quickly to help the desperate, and moving carefully to avoid aiding the undeserving.

"This is the challenge we perpetually face," said Nicol Andrews, a FEMA spokeswoman. "Do you get assistance into the hands of those who desperately need
it as quickly as possible? Or do you slow it down to dot every single I and cross every single T? We chose to err on the side of the victim."

Could they not just take a look around them at the total lack of devastation? Jackson is 160 miles from the coast. Could they not at least look at a map?