WaPO & NYT run VERY good articles on just what the hell happened.

[DemsUnited]

NYT:
Disarray Marked the Path From Hurricane to Anarchy

By ERIC LIPTON, CHRISTOPHER DREW, SCOTT SHANE and DAVID ROHDE
Published: September 11, 2005

This article is by Eric Lipton, Christopher Drew, Scott Shane and David Rohde.

The governor of Louisiana was "blistering mad." It was the third night after Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans, and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco needed buses to rescue thousands of people from the fetid Superdome and convention center. But only a fraction of the 500 vehicles promised by federal authorities had arrived.

Ms. Blanco burst into the state's emergency center in Baton Rouge. "Does anybody in this building know anything about buses?" she recalled crying out.

They were an obvious linchpin for evacuating a city where nearly 100,000 people had no cars. Yet the federal, state and local officials who had failed to round up buses in advance were now in a frantic hunt. It would be two more days before they found enough to empty the shelters.

The official autopsies of the flawed response to the catastrophic storm have already begun in Washington, and may offer lessons for dealing with a terrorist attack or even another hurricane this season. But an initial examination of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath demonstrates the extent to which the federal government failed to fulfill the pledge it made after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to face domestic threats as a unified, seamless force.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/national/nationalspecial/11response.html?hp&ex=1126411200&en=cd7ee70e1622076b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Washington Post:

The Buildup to a City's Chaos
As Predictions Were Met, Pleas for Help Faced Slow Response

By Susan B. Glasser and Michael Grunwald
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 11, 2005; Page A01

Walter Maestri had dreaded this call for a decade, ever since he took over emergency management for Jefferson Parish, a marshy collection of suburbs around New Orleans. It was Friday night, Aug. 26, and his friend Max Mayfield was on the line. Mayfield is the head of the National Hurricane Center, and he wasn't calling to chat.

"Walter," Mayfield said, "get ready."

"What do you mean?" Maestri asked, though he already knew the answer.

Hurricane Katrina had barreled into the Gulf of Mexico, and Mayfield's latest forecast had it smashing into New Orleans as a Category 4 or 5 storm Monday morning. Maestri already had 10,000 body bags in his parish, in case he ever got a call like this.
<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/10/AR2005091001529.html

These are LONG articles but well worth reading.

Ironic that two of the countries biggest papers are running these lead articles on 9/11.

[AX10]

1. kick

Thanks for the link.

[Suich]

2. Good article. They mention a plan for evacuating nursing homes

but nothing is mentioned about evacuating all the hospitals.

[DELUSIONAL]

3. Both are an overview of what went right

The Post Article seems to be trying to show that bushie was engaged -- but it is a hard sell.

Must reading -- The WP article sort of paints the kid who borrowed the school bus and drive the first evacuees to Houston as one of the heroes.