You remember correctly. BEFORE the waters rose, the Dem PTB's circled the wagons and made sure everyone had the same mantra.
Unlike 9/11, a tornado, or an earthquake....
WE all knew for days, that this hurricane was going to hit land somewhere...and that it would be a miracle if it was less than a CAT 3, when it hit land...
Therefore, the dems at city, state, and national levels, had 3 or more days to plan ways of how to deal with this...
and the Gov. was probably FURIOUS at Bush for calling her and telling her to order an evacuation...and with Landrieu and Clinton...behind her...the rest, as they say, is history.