Mississippi vs. Louisiana

It is obvious that the attention has fallen heavily on New Orleans. The disaster perhaps warrants the disproportionate attention in New Orleans in comparison to other Katrina hit areas. However, on Sunday's Meet the Press their were two rather different viewpoints expressed. One by New Orlean's Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard who was moved to tears begging for federal help. Another by GOP Governor Haley Barbour whom has had a long history including a stint as RNC chair in the 90's. Transcript:

But my experience is very different from Louisiana, apparently.  I don't know anything about Louisiana.  Over here, we had the Coast Guard in Monday night. They took 1,700 people off the roofs of houses with guys hanging off of helicopters to get them.  They sent us a million meals last night because we'd eaten everything through.  Everything hasn't been perfect here, by any stretch of the imagination, Tim.  But the federal government has been good partners to us.  They've tried hard.  Our people have tried hard.  Firemen and policemen and emergency medical people, National Guard, highway patrolmen working virtually around the clock, sleeping in their cars when they could sleep.  And we've made progress every day.

Tim must have sensed there was too much information being disseminated already, he quickly changed to topic to rebuilding the Casinos.

Now it is odd, that By Monday night August 29th (only one day after the storm) Mississippi had the benefit of the Coast Guard rescuing up to 1,700 people, when Louisiana only saw coast guard activity on Wednesday August 31 (two days after Mississippi).  This is rather disturbing given the fact that Louisiana declared a state of Emergency a full day before Mississippi did.

Starting to smell rotten?  So far we have a super Republican power player whose state recieves pretty good federal attention in the aftermath, and another state run by democrats that seems to get less than lackluster federal response.

Rather alarming.  

Strange that (presumeably) the Coast Guard did this for Mississippi (on August 29th):

Emergency officials on the Gulf Coast said rescue teams braved strong winds and high water to reach people stranded on roofs and in attics -- people who apparently ignored repeated orders to evacuate on Sunday.

But didn't do anything for New Orleans that same day where the winds were less "strong."

Funny how Mayor Ray Nagin has been getting slammed by the right for being not so swift at issueing a mandatory evacuation while Mississippi was disseminating the following information as late (August 28th) as Mayor Nagin was issuing his mandatory evacuation:

"In Pearl River County, Carolyn Nelson, coordinator of Emergency Management said at 9:30 a.m. that there were no mandatory evacuations and none were expected. The first shelter was to open in Picayune at 2 p.m., with others to be opened as needed.

'We're telling callers that if they have good sturdy homes and they're not in a flood zone to stay,' said Nelson, 'Leaving is their call.'"

So why aren't those folks falling under such scrutiny by the right as the Louisiana folks?  After all anyone who stayed behind  and died in Mississippi were just following orders right?  

Developing...


UPDATE: Coast Guard was on the Scene in New Orleans on August 29th as well. Here is a good site for Coast Guard pics and news.