The cable nets cut away early from the news conference by Gen. Carl Strock of the Army Corps of Engineers, but I watched it all, and "I haven't got an answer for that" became a sad mantra. What one could glean was that rotary wing aircraft (i.e. helicopters) were diverted from the sandbag drop to the rescue effort, even though the latter was a coast guard operation. Reading between the lines, that suggested a shortage of helicopters as part of the pre-positioned equipment staged before the hurricane's arrival. Gen. Strock did deny that there was any stretching of the Corp's personnel or equipment due to the Iraq War. He had no estimate on how long it would take to partially heal the breach at the 17th St. Canal, or to drain the city. One key note: Gen. Strock said that, because of evacuation of the city, no one was available to do the onsite eyeballing of levees in the wake of the hurricane. One was left wondering why aviation assets weren't available to do such inspections, but that question remained unasked.
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