I do agree that people need to be prepared! Everyone should have at the very least a basic disaster kit, that includes water, food first aid supplies, gasoline in their vehicles and medications they will need. The first responsibility lies with the individual...

BUT

There are people who live day to day, who have no money to live more than a few days, in inner cities and urban areas, who have no idea how to care for themselves without a grocery store nearby, a taxicab to transport them, and a few days worth of meds. They don't know HOW to get water anywhere besides a tap, how to purify it, how to cook anything that does not come out of a box with directions on it, and even if they do, they don't have the money to purchase the necessary supplies.

I am saying preparation needs to happen BEFORE a disaster, not after. It needs to be a combination of neighborly respect and looking out for each other, a town/city/county/state/federal/charitable effort TOGETHER, not a jumble where one hand doesn't know what the other is doing.

I realize the news channels report mostly gloom and doom, but I have to tell you, we went through a major ice storm ten years ago, power was lost for a month in some cases, roads nearly all impassable, stores closed, collapsing roofs, etc. and we didn't leave anyone who needed help out in the cold.

We went out with chain saws and cut up the trees to clear roads, we got our skidders and dragged cars out of the way, we brought generators from house to house to ensure people had safe food, we fed people with food that needed to be eaten before it spoiled, we had radio call in shows where people called in and told what they needed and someone got to them and did what they could to help, and evacuated them when needed, tips were given as to how to prevent food spoilage, how to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, people took in neighbors, etc.

I understand that the government is NOT going to save everyone, but there still exists a fundamental responsibility by the government to be fully prepared in a disaster, and ours isn't. The lessons learned from the Katrina disaster haven't been implemented as they should have been.

I've got no beef with the Red Cross or any of the charitable organizations. I've seen them squeeze supplies out of thin air. I've seen the people who come from everywhere to help out.

I've also heard the bitterness of the displaced people from LA who are still living here in Maine, who tell stories of how bodies were left to rot on sidewalks, how they went days without food or water, how they lost everything and people acted like it was their own fault for "not being prepared" when they did everything right and still....waited and waited for someone to come.