Now, being an "urban" kind of guy, this has been hitting a lot of "touchy areas" in my psyche (and generating quite a lot of rather "non-PC" reactions in me), so I've opted to not post a lot of my own takes on what's happening there, as to not unduly "create drama" in here with my "more delicate" readers.
However, I would HIGHLY recommend checking out THIS POST by
stonemirror which takes a very level-headed look at what is and is not possible to plan for in a disaster situation, and what realistically would have been required to mitigate the effects of a category 5 storm hitting New Orleans (a very interesting piece on what this would entail had been pointed out a few days ago by littlejohnnyp, and is likewise well worth a read).