Actually there is a fair amount of evidence that private non-military response to Katrina was better than FEMA. Wild-eyed conservative website "Hot Gas" discusses today how Waffle House, Wal-Mart and Home Depot beat the pants off FEMA, and how the New York Times and other worshippers at the altar of Big Gummint are wrong about Mitt Romney's supposed "Privatize FEMA" idea.