I haven’t been reading TIA Daily of late, but today’s essay, “An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State” by Robert Tracinski, is well worth a few minutes of careful attention.

Yesterday, I heard a phone interview on CNN from a tourist trapped in the downtown Ritz Carlton with a few hundred other people. She and her husband — and presumably many other tourists — were unable to evacuate due to the closure of the airport before the storm hit. As of yesterday, their food, water, and waste situation was growing desperate. Worse, she had no idea whether anyone in charge of the rescue efforts knew of their plight. She was pleading for any possible assistance, mostly in fear of being overlooked, even while recognizing that rescuers are currently overwhelmed. It was heartbreaking.

In contrast, I later saw footage of a group of people sitting around somewhere, perhaps near the Superdome, chanting “We need help now! We need help now! We need help now!” Similarly, today I just saw a brief interview with a man outside the Convention Center complaining about the fact that he hasn’t been evacuated yet. He then threatened, “If I don’t leave today, something’s gotta give.”

Even worse, I just heard on Fox News that a large group of firefighters and their families are trapped in some building in due to sniper fire from local gangs apparently seeking to loot nearby buildings without interference.