Quote Originally Posted by Dreadbelly
I have a question that I hope somebody can answer.

And please, let's not turn this in to a political flamewar.

With the National Guard being short on manpower because so many of them being deployed over seas... Where are they going to get the man power needed for the restoration effort that is going to take place? How will they restore order? I mean, well, I am not sure how to ask this, but isn't our National Guard meant to, well, be guarding us, the U.S.? I am only asking because I am completely baffled as to why, well, why there are so many overseas and not nearly enough at home. Will they have to pull troops out of Iraq to come home and clean up the mess? How will this work?

I mean, this is a major emergency. A disaster. Our gulf coast, probably our most important coast, our major economic hub, the place of most of our refineries, the port which 3/4ths of our national grain and produce supplies gets shipped out from, I mean, most of America depends on these ports and refineries and outlets.... We need to get this whole area back up and running ASAP. It's almost fall the last time I checked... And it's about time for harvesting. So, when all this grain, corn, soybeans, etc, is harvested, we can't really float it down the mighty Mississippi and cart it off to everybody that needs it... This is going to have untold disasterous effects on the price of food all over the world... And the men that we need the most, the ones that should be here at home waiting to tackle disasters just like this one, well, they are not home, and certainly not prepared to fix this mess.

I am starting to see a much larger picture as I sit down and think about it, and I don't like what I am seeing.

Here's something to ponder, the US will be able to overcome this disaster in a relatively short period of time. It is a once in a long while event. As you're contemplating recovery, take the time to think about how some countries must deal with this as an annual event.
You've raised some very important issues. Mississippi, and the other states, have all my sympathy.