An excellent post. My only opinion is that there was no way to fully anticipate or prepare for the extent of this tragedy. I am so proud of the way all Americans have stepped up to help our brothers and sisters who lost everything.
Susan: I can't answer all of your questions, but I do recall hearing about the timeline between Bush requesting that the mayor (or governor) announce evacuation, and the time that elapsed before the mayor(or governor) actually called it. My source was, IIRC, Hannity & COlmes. I am sure that in the coming months all will be revealed and hopefully we will all have full disclosure of the events and what needs to be done to insure that the next catastrophe will be handled better.