Blame explained by ABC

"If the city and the state are stumbling or in over their head, then it's FEMA's [Federal Emergency Management Agency's] responsibility to show some leadership," said Jerry Hauer, director of public health preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Right, but by the nature of bureaucracy — following orders, scheduling things, etc. — it’s the rare director that jumps right in, knocking heads and getting things done.  (Is this Jerry Hauer such a director?)  Directors know that’s a good way to find oneself job-hunting.  It’s the nature of things, as hurricanes are in the nature of things.  And believe me, howls would have been heard from French Quarter to Latin Quarter and all other quarters of the continental U.S. if restoring order — a sine qua non in such cases and especially in this one — had resulted in shooting someone, assuming it didn’t and excepting New O. cops reportedly getting “at least five” bad guys, themselves shooters.

Note, by the way, that looking to feds is advised after “city and state are stumbling or in over their head.”  Who thinks they weren’t in this case.  The governor didn’t do this or that, thinking the mayor would do it.  The mayor wept and cursed on radio — both in over their heads every bit as much as New Orleans.

It’s all in an excellent short rundown by ABC, “Who's to Blame for Delayed Response to Katrina? New Orleans' Emergency Plan Not Followed, Federal Government Slow to Take Lead”, which is enough to make MSM-bashers like me think again.