re: What's the truth on Katrina/Blackwater, etc.

I was a contractor working at Ochsner Hospital main campus on and off for weeks starting 3 days after the storm. The only military presence I saw were the National Guard or Army Reserve unit set up on the front grounds of the medical center, they usually had one or two guys with M16s walking around. We and some of the other contractors had our own security, most of them were guys just out of the service, but they were just ordinary security guards, no body armor, Kevlar,or other tactical gear. I never saw one with a weapon other than a side arm, although the ones with us had a shotgun in their vehicle. We had wristbands to identify us as being cleared to enter the hospital, but overall security was pretty lax, several buildings had the doors blocked open due to no AC. When I could I would walk around outside in a large parking lot in the rear. One night I looked in the back of a pickup and saw two feet sticking out from a tarp with just socks on. I first thought it was a body, later I met the person that belonged to the feet. He was one of the Ochsner physicians, he had lost his home in the storm, and his family had left the state to live with relatives. He was living out of his pickup, and found he was most comfortable just sleeping in the bed when he could get a break.