And where is your evidence that they were "ignored"?
See post 12.
Nagin, as well as Blanco, disregarded the disaster plan, and in the process left many, many people to die.
Several posters here and elsewhere have also noted the over-reliance on private transport and have suggested buses and rail as equally important ways of leaving the disaster zone in advance.
Sorry, the wrong questions are being asked. The question that needs asking is, "If these people had not been turned into welfare dependents, would they have had the initiative to get out and improve their own standard of living or would they have stayed there and starved because they are truly helpless? Democrats have taken away the land of opportunity for these people and trapped them in a dependent substandard and dangerous life style.
"..undermine the middle class's already shaky trust in FEMA in the future.."
Every time I see a post on this website that fosters the image of our government as competent bordering on omnipotent, I want to throw up. Unfortunately, there are a few things that we have not yet identified a better way to do than government. Government planning, theoretically one of FEMA's functions, is an oxymoron. Government security or Homeland security is not a joke, but most people on this forum know that flight security depends as much or more on the people on the plane than on screeners on the ground. The same applies to our individual safety on the street. Government never seems to learn, they keep turning criminals loose to prey on people. Democrats want to disarm people thereby removing the most important protection that actually adds some security to our streets. Unfortunately or sadly, much of our security depends on the ineptness of others instead of government efforts. I served during the era of the draft. Not denigrating the fighting men of that day, but anybody who doesn't recognize the improvement of the all volunteer (professional soldier) military of today where government is essentially subcontracting our defense to dedicated professionals rather than the military bureacracy of the post WWII days is blind or not playing with a full deck. Please people, never forget the words of President Reagan, "Government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem." The United States will never be safe as long as a single Democrat holds elected public office.