One thing that is driving me crazy is the comparison of the spill to Katrina. We're talking two different situations, here. I'm not quite sure what people are expecting the government to be able to do in this situation. I doubt they have the people or equipment on staff to stop the leak. Maybe more people on the ground to clean up the oil? But how many ships are there out there to skim the oil? So I did some research:
22,000: Personnel working to protect shoreline and wildlife (Department of the Interior)
1,200: Skimmers, tugs, barges and recovery vessels being used in cleanup (Interior)
3.1 million: Feet of boom deployed to contain the spill (Interior)
840,000: Gallons of chemical dispersants used (Interior)
11.1 million: Gallons of oily water recovered (Interior)
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/27/gulf-oil-spill-by-the-numbers/
I just don't know. There probably should be more people on the ground to try to clean up. But frankly, I just don't see how they could have kept the oil out of the marshes. The weather didn't cooperate in the beginning (remember the storms, wind, waves that pushed oil over the booms?) There's just a lot of territory to cover and try to protect.
