Some come to help....and some just play helpers on TV

And then, some bring their photographers along....

EFFORTS by Hollywood actor Sean Penn to aid New Orleans victims stranded by Hurricane Katrina foundered badly overnight, when the boat he was piloting to launch a rescue attempt sprang a leak....

When the boat's motor failed to start, those aboard were forced to use paddles to propel themselves down the flooded New Orleans street...

With the boat loaded with members of Penn's entourage, including a personal photographer, one bystander taunted the actor: "How are you going to get any people in that thing?"

And then there is this naive reporter who wonders why they just didn't drop food from planes to those in N.O.

LINK

DANIELS: It's good to get a different perspective for it because we hardly hear people from that point of view to be quite candid. I've heard a lot of people saying this is the United States of America, the biggest superpower. Why can't this effort get convoys of aircraft to just send the supplies down?

GOURE: Unless you're going to drop the palates from 10 or 20,000 feet on the heads of these poor people, you have to get it to an area near the disaster zone and then bring it in by truck or helicopter. ....

DANIELS: ... I just want to get back to what can be done now. You mentioned the aircraft. If they were to drop food, they're be no place for the food to land but correct me if I'm wrong I believe this has played out before in the history of the United States, where we have conducted operations where we have lowered the food down. There's nowhere in this area where the food could have been dropped?

GOURE: You might have been able to do that and just send it out the back in a palate. But the problem is, of course, unless you know that you have a clear zone, you're lucky to drop it on people's heads. There have been cases for example, during severe storms, winter storms, where the Air Force or the Air National Guard has gone out to drop hay to stranded cattle and there have been cases where after that during the reconnaissance run, the reconnaissance aircraft would take pictures. Some of these cases, all they found were cattle, four legs up because they got hit in the head by these bales of hay. You can drop a palette and it drops on a family of refugees and you'll never hear the end of it. ...