Remember back during Katrena. I remember a lot of people wanting to help, but they got orders from the Fed (FEMA?) not to help. I heard on the radio that there was a fire department rescue boat from a city near me (Rochester, NY) that was about to go there. They got a call from FEMA, and ordered them not to.
Lets see. We have dispersants, booms, skimmer ships, etc. All ordered not to. Anyone else seeing parallels?