[SvilleKid]

Regardless of any isolated misunderstanding of union actions, I just don't see how the outcome of fuel, food, utility shortages could be anything BUT what they currently are. And regardless of the nobility of Gulf Coast residents offering advice to our northeast residents, there really are few similarities that exist where prep and/or advice will or would have made ANY differences to where the NE is today.

In the south, for the most part, we have a low density existence. We have few areas where people live in huge numbers literally on top of each other. In most of our high density developments, we are still attached housing, with multi-level floors of different ownership/ leased space a small percentage of our living spaces. That gives most of us room to store extra food, water and (often) fuel. That kind of prep room just does not exist in areas like NYC or Newark. That's not a criticism. It's just the nature of the areas. In the Gulf Coast areas, we have hurricanes. Often. It's a given, a way of life we can and do prepare for, because it WILL HAPPEN. SOON. And often. In the NE, a killer hurricane is a very rare possibility. There is no way everyone in that area can possibility maintain an adequate supply of staples for such am event, when there's little chance such a storm would happen once in 40 years. Again, that's just the common sense nature of that area. It would be like my trying to maintain the items needed to survive a massive earthquake. It's unlikely to happen. So I have little need to prepare.

And this is different than what the NE CAN prepare for. Sure, the NE is used to power outages. Snowstorms can take out power for extended times. But they are ready and able to quickly open up roads from snow. And that doesn't usually effect heating fuel or Liq gas or sewage systems. Clearing roads, while also trying to fix sewage systems, physically remove debris (but only after time consuming, house by house searches) is a different situation than what can be logically anticipated.

Again, it is going to require time. Time that the residents may not have. I do know that mass riots WILL NOT speed the process. The necessity in New Orleans to have armed NatGuard to protect the recovery crews from violence sure didn't help speed anything up. Hopefully enough supplied wil get into the area, and cool heads will prevail, and civil unrest won't arise to complicate matters.