EMERGENCY MISMANAGEMENT? Don at Cafe Hayek links to a statement from the American Red Cross to the effect that by order of the National Guard and at the request of the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security, the Red Cross must set up outside New Orleans.

The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

There will be plenty of opportunities to second-guess this decision, but Mr Boudreaux's judgement might be too harsh.

Judging from the Red Cross's explanation (above), government apparently feared that the Red Cross would deliver relief with too much success. Why else would people choose not to leave a destroyed city, and even want to return to it?

So, government decided that letting people die was a better course than risking any success that the Red Cross would likely have at providing disaster relief.

On the other hand, if New Orleans is in fact the country's largest Superfund site, aid stations within the city might have kept more people in greater danger longer. It's still too soon to sort that out. But if there are aid stations close to the city, those buses in a drowned motor pool not far from the Super Dome will stand in mute reproach to somebody's decision not to coordinate the city and parish government's plans with the Red Cross.