"However, if my home is destroyed by a tornado and I do not have the proper insurance, no one is going to give me a new one. "
A very important distinction is that the residents of NO were told by the federal govt that the levee system would hold for a cat 3 hurricane. It didn't. While residents knew that the levees were no match for cat 4 or 5, it has been shown that Katrina was only a cat 2 hurricane by the time it reached NO. Exactly what kind of levee protection is that? Just what have we taxpayers been paying for?
It appears from years of records that it was known by the federal govt that the levees wouldn't hold and nothing was ever said to warn the residents or rectify the situation. This is goes back more to Clinton and him being totally asleep at the wheel (or messing with the interns).
Add on top of that the fact that the barrier protection has been lost and that this responsibility to maintain it fell into the federal govts hands and you can understand why Louisiana residents are POed at the feds. Now pile on top of that those with proper flood insurance are getting the run around and not getting their checks. Wouldn't you be rather upset if 6 months after that torrnado hit your house that you didn't get your insurance check??? While not everyone in NO was insured, the insured homeowners are getting the run around in too many cases.
It is simply a huge mess down there and the federal govt should get a lot of the blame just as President Bush says it should. It is interesting that The Netherlands is 60% below seas level and experience horrific storms and yet they have an outstanding flood control system. Why can't the US produce something just as good? Even more importantly, this tells us about how vulnerable all of our cities are to a major terrorist attack by dirty bombs, chemical agents, biological agents and so on. That should worry everyone here and we need to see NO as a reflection of what will happen in the next city-wide crisis in this country.
Whether you like it or not, NO is a strategic city for the US. It has 2 major ports and serves a significant part of the country. It sits virtually on top of the strategic oil reserves and is an entry for natural gas and petroleum to the US. It seems strange that a billion dollars a day go into Iraq with hardly a squawk by conservatives and yet they scream bloody hell when our own taxpaying citizens are asking for what gets used up in a week in Iraq. Something is very odd about that.
As I understand in the New Orleans area, their was a massive waste of money on all the levee construction, and that the flood wall that might have worked was blocked by environmentalists, while an unneeded channel was built against advice from the Corps of Engineers. 100 years of poor decisions in NO finally came home to roost.
Regardless of what the federal government said, I doubt any bankable promises were made. If insurance companies are defaulting on legitimate claims, you have plenty of reason to be POd, but from other recent disasters, including Hugo in SC, that is not unusual.
NO is an important port, but many are like me, and do not wish to see it become a large urban area again. Even though the levees were supposed to hold against a Category 3, until one happened, there was no way to tell. I don't think you could protect against a category 5 regardless of what is built, and with hurricanes increasing in the next ten years, I would not bet against one. New Orleans should be abandoned as an urban area.
You are correct that it shows what would happen in another large city crisis. The lesson would be to not depend on the federal government. The majority of people in NO didn't even have enough food for three days. If your local government and local people are not prepared, that is a disaster waiting to happen.