If there are any who should be subject to charges of criminal negligence, ... it is Nagin, Blanco, and their irresponsible cohorts.
The Feds did trumpet the emergency declaration as far in advance as the meteorological info could provide for in light of the relative accuracy of projected landfall, which is by no means a perfected art/science.
It is in fact the unpredictable nature of these tempestuous sea monsters that complicates pre-positioning and pre-mobilization of response assets. ... Many of the ignorant talking-heads in the media and their agenda-driven malcontented accomplices just don't get it. You don't put your disaster response assets in the bulls-eye for the sake of being close, ... doing so risks losing them as well, ... it's a no-brainer. You have to stand off far enough to be able to survive the fall-out, and that may mean hundreds of miles.
The Katrina scenario, had it taken place almost anywhere else, most likely would not have been as devastating, ... primarily because NOLA's unique geography is not duplicated in any other major metro area, ... and secondly, because most other coastal target areas are perhaps more attentive to their liabilities and have addressed them - federal assistance or not.
You have to ask the question, ... did Nagin, Blanco and their local/state bureaucratic cohorts spend as much time and effort on disaster preparedness as they do/did on preparing for Mardi Gras, ... hmm?