Comparing the systems in Florida and Louisiana is not helpful.
Florida is pummeled by several hurricanes every year. They know that storms are serious business. They have learned from past hurricanes and have through experience developed top-line hurricane response systems.
Louisiana, and New Orleans specifically, has nowhere near the hurricane preparedness as Florida. Unlike Florida, New Orleans has not been hit by a hurricane since Chemile in 1962!!!
They don't have a plan. It hasnt happened in 40+ years.
Betsy in 1965, Camille in 1969, and Ivan last year. The later storms were glancing blows, but they should have been a wake-up call.
First, Camille was in 1969, thirty-six years ago and I remember that storm. It was the most devastating thing I have ever seen. All the more reason for New Orleans to have developed a plan by now.
As far as comparing the systems, I have already said that every state on the Gulf Coast should be prepared for hurricanes. That is especially true of any state that has seen the devastation of Camille.
Don't use the 'they have not been hit in blah, blah, blah years' as an excuse. The Miami area had not been hit for years until Andrew came along. If some thing can happen and it's a really bad thing, you have to plan for when it does happen. Louisiana has not done their planning to their own detriment.
What really would have been helpful? New Orleans could have come out of its dream world and started making plans the day after Camille hit. Barring that, at the very least they should have started developing evacuation plans when they saw Florida hit four times, twice on the Gulf Coast.
The people of New Orleans live below sea level in a basin surrounded by water. This is probably the worst situation for a city in the path of a category five hurricane. The politicians knew this and had 36 years to plan for this event. They have no excuse. Their stupidity is on their own heads. There is no reason for the rest of the country to have to suffer under federal controls because of their idiocy.
Camille was in 1969 and went east of N.O....not much damage.
Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans in 1965 but was weaker in intensity...a lot of rain though!