Storms are so unpredictable there's no way to know what is needed until it has passed.
Yeah, I think it was Matt Drudge who played an interview with Ray Nagin (the interviewer sounded like Garland Robinette, for any of you New Orleanians out there), taped and broadcast the Sunday before Katrina's strike, and Nagin sounded confident that he had everything under control.
Of course we know the rest -- everything was OK Monday after the strike, and the levees broke Tuesday morning.