All the scenes of looting really got me thinking about the act of looting and the potential rewards. Once all the Nike's, clothes, and firearms are looted from the local stores, what happens to the banks and other locations that keep large amounts of cash on hand or in vaults? At this point, I think it's safe to say that with a military presence of more than 5,000 soldiers, plus numerous LEO's from around the country (and private contractors), the opportunity for getting into a bank or store that may have some large cash deposits has passed. Bu what about the hours immediately before and after Katrina hit?

Wouldn't you think that there were plans in place by organized crime to go after these targets? New Orleans has long been well reprersented by organized crime, and I mean folks much further up the food chain than gang bangers looking to score Rolexes and the like. I'm talking about sophisticated and experienced criminals that are familiar with safe cracking and electronics, or have the type of skills that one would need to pull off breaking into a modern day bank vault. To help in that endeavor, wouldn't the shootings and lootings in some of the local stores provide some excellent diversions for such crimes? If a person were to plan such a big crime, why not even recruit and assist some of the local low level thugs to break into the shoe stores and liquor stores?

Maybe the doofus mayor of NO didn't plan well for this hurricane, but wouldn't you think that a more sophisticated criminal element would long ago have recognized that the day would come when a Katrina-like hurrican would eventually hit NO, and with some proper planning their city would become a "target rich" environment in a matter of hours? Your people would have to be ready to respond quickly, but doesn't the National Weather Service provide enough of a warning to those ready to pull off such a crime? I just find it hard to believe that a city the size of New Orleans (and with the amount of potential plunder available), has only suffered the loss of the inventories from Athlete's Foot, Piggly Wiggly, and Wal Mart.

Anyone think we'll hear of such accounts once some normality returns to New Orleans?