There has evidently been some sniping at rescuers, and these stories are being repeated so often that one might think the snipers are everywhere. The fact seems to be, though, that there have only been four or five such instances, all involving a shot or two. In other words, no more than five snipers (so far)in a nonfunctioning "city" of tens of thousands of desperate people.

Nutty, I'm not sure if there is an "acute lack" of helicopter support. Helicopters have been coming in since yesterday morning, but they can usually rescue one person at a time. Supposedly they picked up a thousand people yesterday; that means about a thousand sorties. Today I believe they picked up three thousand. So hundreds of helicopters are in use. Surely if a lack exists it has most to do with the logistic difficulties of getting units from various Guard units up and running from a standstill on short notice.

Nothing in my experience with Americans, even obnoxious ones, allows me to believe without very powerful evidence that any of the problems involved with this mission are the result of conspiracy or ill will. (Stupidity, yes. Confusion, yes. Overconfidence, absolutely.)

Resources are coming in any way they can. All the highways are clogged with debris, or flooded out. Some bridges are out. This slows things down, obviously. Food is coming in by air, but the planes have to land somewhere and then the trucks have to take over. Many of people at the Superdome are out now and in Houston. The buses are still picking up the others. Food and water has now been brought to the Superdome (undoubtedly not yet enough.)

While all this was going on, 15,000 more survivors were discovered at the New Orleans Convention Center. Nobody knew that many people were there; there were no official instructions to go there. All communications were out. These are the people who are the most angry now, bdecause nobody has yet shown up to help them.

I don't know if food and water is being dropped by air or not. Cargo planes can't do it, becuase they'd be dropping it straight into the water where much of it would be lost. Maybe helicopters are dropping some. I don't know why they wouldn't be, and honestly I haven't heard any reports that specifically said they weren't.

Satellite phones are working now, intermittently. The storm appears to have knocked out the relay towers in the area.

People can't boil water. Part of the horror. Babies and old people can survive for several days, but you're right, long enough without food or water and they will be among the first to succomb. It's a true catastrophe.

I'd be surprised if there had been any mobilization exercises for something of this extent. Hurricane relief, yes. But the flood is the biggest problem. Without it, many of those trapped survivors could have walked away. No American city has ever been drowned like this, and the levees held in every previous case. The last disaster even vaguely like this was the San Francisco earthquake a century ago. If we could watch 24-hour coverage of that, my guess is that it would look just as bungled as the current operation.

We won't know the real story for a while.

The head of the Salvation Army has just appeared on CNN to say that 200 employees are trapped in a building and cannot yet be gotten out. I think that statement says a lot about what the true conditions are like in New Orleans. Say what you may, the S.A. is not going to write off 200 of its own executives and others because of racism or class warfare. And the National Guard isn't going to either.

As for snipers, a few are now shooting at a police station and at rescue helicopters.