Police Overwhelmed

The situation in New Orleans is going from bad to worse:

Looters around New Orleans spent another day Wednesday threatening survivors and ransacking stores.

The risk to safety prompted Mayor Ray Nagin to order virtually all the city's 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue mission and return to the streets to stop the thefts that turned more hostile as the city plunged deeper into chaos.

"They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas — hotels, hospitals, and we're going to stop it right now," Nagin said in a statement to The Associated Press.

New Orleans' homeland security chief, Terry Ebbert, said looters were breaking into stores all over town and stealing guns. He said there are gangs of armed men moving around the city. At one point, officers stranded on the roof of a hotel were fired at by people on the street.

Governor Kathleen Blanco has asked the White House to send more people to help with evacuation and rescue operations, thereby freeing up National Guardsmen to stop looters. Ten thousand more National Guard troops are being sent in from across the country, bringing the total to over 28,000, possibly the largest military response to a natural disaster.

Unfortunately, it's a little too late for all the people that have already died and continue dying, hopelessly waiting to be rescued.

Too little, too late. That's Bush's way.