Of course race and poverty had everything to do with it. Why else would it take us 5 fricking days to get there.
I guess that would depend on what you mean by "us". I am willing to agree that the federal government has dropped ball to some extent, but first let's get a few things straight:
1. The evacuation was 5 days ago. But the levy broke, and the majority of the damage to New Orleans was done, just THREE days ago, on Tuesday. In fact, until the levy gave way, all the news coverage on was extolling the luck of the city and how it had dodged the bullet.
2. The evacuation plan was designed and instituted by the local and state authoritites. Local and State level action plans are always the first line of defense when a disaster strikes. The local authorities who sent the poorest people with the least resources into the Superdome without any plan for caring for those people in the days leading up to and directly after the storm bear a great portion of the blame here. There was no stockpile of provisions to care for the number of people that took refuge there. If we're going to talk about who dropped the ball, we should start THERE before deciding that the feds are to solely blame.
3. The conditions in and around the city of New Orleans have been such that swift, decisive, and effective action simply weren't immediately possible. The lack of any air traffic control measures, impassable/flooded roads, the destroyed infrastructure of the State of LA--these are all factors that have been major contributors to the chaos surrounding the relief effort.
4. This situation, and the actual scope of the damage in New Orleans, is of such a magnitude that we have NEVER had to deal with anything close to it in modern history. FEMA and Homeland Security are bureaucratic agencies, and actually moving and distributing supplies and personnel to disseminate them in such dire circumstances is hardly an operation that can be designed and deployed in a few hours.
5. Some of the blame for the delay must lay squarely on the shoulders of the very people who need to be helped. The people housed in these evacuation centers are the poorest, least educated citizens of New Orleans. Even under the best of conditions, violence would still likely have broken out instigated by the same portion of society that practiced it in the now flooded neighborhoods they hailed from. When, early on, the press, aid workers and medical pesonnel were attacked by the very people they were trying to help, they had no choice but to wait for reinforcements to bring some order before going back in. As always, a small minority of jackasses makes the majority suffer for their actions.
Now, all that said, were the feds slower to act than they should have been? Maybe. But the logistics involved and the factors to consider are so giagantic that I simply cannot buy that this is 'all about race'.