Katrina: understanding the botched response

This article, [Behind Poor Katrina Response, A Long Chain of Weak Links] from yesterday's Wall Street Journal really does a good job putting the fumbled response to Hurricane Katrina into proper perspective. The whole piece is worth reading, but if you don't have time or if you're just plain lazy and want the Cliffs' Notes version, this pretty much covers it. My opinion: the real failure with the response effort begins with the State of Louisiana and is followed very shortly thereafter by bullet #1. [update... don't miss these: NPR : Official Argues FEMA Has Been Weakened (audio) and Ivo Daalder's latest from TPMCafe: Undermining FEMA - and the Nation update#2: make sure you read this too, judging by it's exposure everyone else already has.]