I think the same crew were in charge last year when 4 hurricanes hit Florida. IF they got flack for anything last year, it was for being too open handed with FEMA money in areas not really struck by the hurricanes.

It's not real sexy, and it doesn't lend itself to a lot of press coverage, but the basic reason this turned out as badly as it did is New Orleans is a poor city per capita and it costs a lot of money to maintain a strong levy system. The levies breaking took everyone by surprise since the hurricane supposedly veered at the last minute.

That's what Gen. Honore tried to tell everyone up front, but no one seems inclined to listen anymore. It was actually a two for one disaster. Just about the time the hurricane blew through, and folks were getting set to come in, the levies broke. Blam. Instant snafu. It's just about that simple I think.

Even the govorner's screw ups in not authorizing federal action sooner wouldn't have amounted to much had the levies not given in after the storm had already passed.

Now we will have a big giant to-do a-la 9/11 and spend a lot of time and money fixing things that aren't really broken, or that were one time accidents, and the levies no doubt will continue to be sucky because New Orleans is a poor city, per capita.