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Just last year the Associated Press predicted all of the failures that have became part of the Katrina tragedy -

Forget about the Associated Press. They have no particular credibility in such matters.

What matters is that scientists at LSU and the Federal Government have been predicting this nightmare scenario for years.

The levies surrounding the New Orleans flood basin was not designed to cope with anything above a Category 3.

Katrina was predicted as a Category 5 and hit as a Category 4.

Hypothetical Hurricane Pam..........a hypothetical, slow moving, Class 3 storm used as a worst-case scenario for New Orleans

Hurricane Pam Exercise Concludes Release Date: July 23, 2004

Note that in the 2004 Hurricane Pam Excersise:

"....in the New Orleans area. More than one million residents evacuated and Hurricane Pam destroyed 500,000-600,000 buildings."

Everybody got that?

The "Hurricane Pam" scenario called for the evacuation of New Orleans BEFORE New Orleans was destroyed and FEMA's job was to then come in and clean up the mess.

The Democrat Governor of Louisianna and the Democrat Mayor of New Orleans did NOTHING to evacuate New Orleans' low-income population although hundreds of city-owned buses remained neatly parked in city-owned parking lots.

I am not sure how many hurricanes you have had to evacuate from but I have had to do so at least 15 times with only two actually necessary. The Evacuation for Katrina ran much more smooth than that for Ivan. The few Roads out of town were converted to Contraflow on Saturday afternoon and the mayor STRONGLY suggested that people evacuate on Saturday morning.

Even with an evacuation underway by Noon on Saturday and all lanes on all roads open traffic was bumper to bumper from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning. The Buses would have only complicated matters and even during a "Mandatory Evacuation" people are still Free to Stay in their homes.

"...did NOTHING to evacuate New Orleans' low-income population..."

That's not true. In their emergency plan they TOLD the people to find a ride with a friend or relative. (Note that NO has an avg. of about 14% that use mass transit - so presumablly many/most of those people don't have cars.

And I would offer a ride to someone, but by the time I load my wife, three kids, dog, cat and supplies in the minivan - we're stopping by to pickup grandma on the way out.

The "Hurricane Pam" scenario called for the evacuation of New Orleans BEFORE New Orleans was destroyed and FEMA's job was to then come in and clean up the mess.

Great link! but the FEMA plan covered more than cleanup.

"We made great progress this week in our preparedness efforts," said Ron Castleman, FEMA Regional Director. "Disaster response teams developed action plans in critical areas such as search and rescue, medical care, sheltering, temporary housing, school restoration and debris management. These plans are essential for quick response to a hurricane but will also help in other emergencies."