This is the first time an entire city has been taken down in the US in my lifetime. 911 was bad but it didn't wipe out the entire city. New Orleans had what 3 days warning and really didn't know until the day before how bad it was going to be. Plus the media is different, with the exception of Andrew we didn't have this 24/7 coverage of a major disastor on 3 news channels of a hurricane.

This is bad but we will get over it and everyone will learn from it. My daughter in Santa Monica called me upset about what she saw in TV and I said at the end of the conversation: "Did you get that earthquake emergency package together that we talked about, so you will have food and water for 5 days. Thats what it will take until they can get to you, if you have a the big one".