Read this article: because it's about time to start comparing San Diego to Katrina, wait we've already done that?

Okay, how about including stereotypical "this is how a Californian would approach disaster relief?" *Does anybody remember that scene in Clueless when Cher is walking out the front door with her ski equipment and her Dad says "Cher, what are you doing?" "I'm Captain of the Pismo Beach disaster relief." "I don't think they need your skis." "Daddy, some people lost everything, don't you think that includes sports equipment?" Yeah, me neither.*

The Time Online likes their California nice and California-y:

Massages, acupuncture and stress counselling are being offered to around 10,000 wildfire evacuees gathering at the Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego — along with Starbucks coffee, beef empanadas and fresh Caesar salads.

“The people are happy. They have everything here,” said the Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, after touring the site. “Nobody does disasters better than California,” agreed David Paulison, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Of course this is an article about the biggest disaster since, oh, what was that one thing again, that thing in New Orleans, anybody... anybody?

It is all a long way from the scenes inside another stadium — the Superdome in New Orleans — two years ago when thousands sheltered from the floods of Hurricane Katrina for several days without proper food or water supplies, sanitation or government assistance.

Yeah, that Katrina thing. So anyway, that was a long time ago, you see, and now we have a chance to learn from our really big, huge, gigantor mistakes, when we totally messed up everything and acted like it wasn't such a big deal to be drowned out by water. I mean we're going to admit that we f'd up that one, right?

Mr Paulison appeared on a succession of morning television yesterday to emphasise there would be no repeat of the Katrina experience — when “things didn’t run so smoothly” — saying: “This is a new FEMA.”

Or we're going to go with "things didn't run so smoothly." Heh, heh, like days without food, water, electricity or help in sight. But whatever, we're willing to try and move forward, now that you've pledged so much help to those trying to rebuild. It's going to be great to get everything taken care of in the quickest and easiest way possible, like I'm sure you helped those poor people in New Orleans, right?

Thousands of people from New Orleans were still living in FEMA trailers and many more had been unable to obtain compensation for the loss of their homes. “I don’t think FEMA has learnt any lessons. If they had, New Orleans would not still be in the situation we find ourselves in now.”

Oh snap. Could be a LONG road ahead.