Unfortunately, just as with Hurricane Katrina, there are a host of with federal, state and local coordination in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita.

See this article:

HoustonChronicle.com: Hurricane Rita Aftermath

Here is an excerpt from that article:

County Judge Carl Griffith said today he has become so frustrated with the federal relief effort that he has instructed all local officials to use police force if they have to to take supplies from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"If you have enough policemen to take it from them, take it," Griffith said.

His frustration comes as squabbling continues among federal, state and local over what some characterize as a woeful lack of communication.

R. David Paulison, acting FEMA head, was scheduled to visit the federal headquarters in the region, while local officials met across town to express their anger.

"We are very short on food and water, and the FEMA trucks that were supposed to be here just aren't here," Griffith said.

Commenting on the lack of help from FEMA, Griffith said, "We can't help it if politicans come here and just want to be seen by the media."

Deb Schmidt, a U.S. Forest Service official, attended the meeting and tried to catalog all the needs around the county, but she mostly ended up observing anger from the local officials.

"We hit the ground running with our own commodities and our own facilities, but we have no support," Griffith said.

City officials cited a lack of water pumps, generators, food and water, and they complained about federal relief teams failing to show and fuel deliveries not happening as promised.

Andre Wimer, city manager for Nederland, said he was tired of getting the runaround from federal officials. "We spend the day faxing and talking and we don't get any feedback. We need somebody helping us."

All is not well between local and state officials either.

According to the local officials at the meeting, state troopers were not allowing city employees crucial to the relief effort back into the county.

"I realize that there is a significant logistics issue and I appreciate that," Wimer said. "But there is a significant amount of equipment and manpower sitting at (local FEMA headquarters) and for whatever reason, it has not been released and that is a bunch of (nonsense)."

-snip-

Thos article also reports the death of a five members of a Texas family and notes that "Tempers also are flaring with local residents" who are being blocked from going back to their homes to see the damage and retrieve any possessions that might not have been damaged.