“It's possible that authorities were wise to hold back food and water for five long days because it was too dangerous to proceed into the city. Perhaps the gangs of thugs were so numerous and so dangerous that police had to keep women and children from leaving the city on foot because some criminals might sneak out with them.”

One trusts that Digby says this with a certain irony.

All over the world, there are dedicated humanitarian professionals who take assistance into conflict zones. Simply, New Orleans doesn’t even register on my scale of “dangerous”.