Actually the flooding did start the night of the storm, despite Shep's exuberance. The low lying areas were flooding but they were miles away from the French Quarter.
I don't think that the WH, state or local officials knew though because it wasn't reported until the other breeches happened. I saw the Discovery channel story of it and it was shown in the documentary where the flooding was happening earlier than reported.
Ultimately it's the individuals fault for not taking care of their family members and themselves. I have had to evacuate with a sick elderly parent before and even though state and local agencies were available to help with the evacuation *I* made sure my wheel chair bound father was taken out of harm's way. My father was receiving home health nursing care and as soon as there was a chance that this area was in the cone of probability the evacuation protocol was enacted. Every one of his nurses and the agency called ahead of time, scheduled a pick up time and made sure his oxygen bottle and other meds were filled. It's the same plan on the books state wide.
Most of those elderly folks that drowned in the nursing home had children who should have taken care of their own family member. The problem we have today is that families don't take care of their own anymore. We have abdicated the responsibility to the state. Whose fault is that?
Is it easy, no, been there done that, but I can sleep at night without any guilty feelings. My sister knows one of the children of the drowned nursing home residents and they are ate up with guilt and remorse. Except for those who were on life support or totally bed bound there really isn't any excuses for children not to go get their mother or father and evacuate them themselves.
The failures really were on the local level primarily because Southwest Louisiana has had several mandatory evacuations and they always get the people out. When Rita slammed into us just three weeks later not one person died because the local officials knew the evacuation plan and put in in place as soon as they knew that they were the bullseye. The evacuation plan works when used.
The truth is many people chose to stay behind because they figured that the storm would turn like usual. They of course were wrong. Many did have a way out despite all of the complaining otherwise.
I know what you are saying. I live in FL, in Jacksonville, where like NOLA, we have not had a major hit since 1969 (although I have only been here since last summer). I was in Houston in 1983 when Alica came in as a Cat III. There was a lot of flooding, as I recall about 80 people died, all downtown had the glass blown out of the buildings, but we survived. When I saw Shep Smith in the quarter, I figured, yeah, there's localized flooding, it's going to be horrible for some, but the city was spared. I think everyone was ready for a Hurricane, but despite all the warnings, when it came in as a high Cat 3 or low 4, everyone figured NOLA might make it. I have been to NOLA, and it was (and probably will be again) a beauiful city. I do believe that the Administration did not ignore the problem and that the primary responsibility, like you stated is individual responsibility, followed by local, State and lastly Federal responsibility. I don't think because W. was on the ranch that he ignored it. I think everyone relied on what they were seeing on cable news and the newspapers who have more "eyes" than anyone but the military. I simply resent the politicization of Katrina. It is interesting that after the earthquake in Pakistan which killed more than 100,000 people, there was the exact same criticism of Musharref. I suppose it's natural to blame whoever is in power. I even heard some moonbat blame President Bush for the earthquake (something with global warming affecting tectonic plates, LOL). So, I guess all I'm saying to the Dims is not to use this as a stick to beat the Bush Administration.