The US will recover -- The private citizens who were best prepared for Katrina were those who did much that responsible civic authorities would want them not to do. You were most likely to do well in this hurricane if you owned a big four-wheel-drive with a full tank of petrol and a spare tank hoarded in the garage. If you decided to stay in New Orleans, you did best if you lived in a very solid, energy inefficient, two-storey house on high ground, with some hoarded food and bottled water, and if you owned a shotgun or two. The inner city renter who habitually took public transport and followed advice to move to the Superdome hit a horrible mess.
Leaked Katrina memo increases pressure on FEMA chief -- Nagin knew the Levee was only designed for a Cat3 storm the City should have been fully evacuated BEFORE the hurricane hit. Nagin failed simple as that. But even if it were not fully evacuated, if the buses had been used to start an evacuation and parked in other cities as the minutes from the June 5, 2005 NO school board meeting recommended, there would have been 400-500 NO school buses in working order that could have been used to continue the evacuation.
Where are the tar and feathers for this poor excuse for a Governor!
LEAD, FOLLOW, or GET OUT OF THE WAY!