GETTING THE INCENTIVES RIGHT. Today's big story is a decision by Louisiana emergency management officials to hold the Red Cross and other eelymosynary institutions outside of New Orleans. Why? Not only to encourage the residents to leave, but apparently to discourage people from lingering at the Superdome and the Convention Center. Betsy's Page has the money quote from the Red Cross site.

Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

Apparently it's easier to pick up stragglers piecemeal from the neighborhoods, rather than to get the incentives right to gather people at a few centers from where mass evacuations can be put together. This transcript of Hugh Hewitt interviewing Major Garrett has more.

Some emergency responders caught in town by a convention made this observation (got the link here. These people were apparently part of the emergent civil society noted here.)

If the relief organizations had saturated the City with food and water in the first 2 or 3 days, the desperation, the frustration and the ugliness would not have set in.

Apparently the relief organizations were ready to go. Look, this matters on a personal level. I would not have remained a member of the Chicago Chapter Circle of Friends or recommended writing a check to the Red Cross had I doubted the organization's ability to get things done. I'd also rather not have to refer to such a dismal example of policymakers misunderstanding the incentives so badly.