Landing Craft loaded with supplies within 40 M NO ordered back last week

so it's parent ship off Louisiana coast and standing by with operating rooms, etc., could sail to Mississippi - was it because Bush brown-noser Haley Barbour got preference? The way the story read is this landing craft was dispatched Tuesday or Wednesday!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509040369sep04,1,1809874,print.story

A 135-foot landing craft stored within the Bataan, the LCU-1656, was dispatched to steam up the 90 miles of Mississippi River to New Orleans. It took a crew of 16, including a doctor, and its deck was stacked with food and water. The craft carries enough food and fuel to remain self-sufficient for 10 days.

<snip>

Then the Bataan was ordered to move to the waters off Biloxi, Miss., and LCU-1656 was ordered to return. The landing craft was 40 miles from New Orleans, but it wouldn't be able to deliver its cargo.

"It was a disappointment," Fish said. "I figured we would be a big help in New Orleans. We've got electricity, and the police could have charged up their radios. We've got water, toilets. We've got food."

Now sailing within 25 miles of Gulfport, Miss., the Bataan has become a floating warehouse. Supplies from Texas and Florida are ferried out to the ship, and the helicopters distribute them where Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel say they are needed.