My husband and I were invited to reception of sorts for a guy who has done a ton of research of what happened before, during and after Hurricane Katrina. Threw a ton of curve balls at me and made me rethink some of my previous conclusions.

First of all, the guy is totally apolitical. He's a researcher.
His first observation (explained exceptionally well) -- Bush is essentially blameless. He counted on his staff (FEMA and Homeland Security) to keep him up to date, and they let him down. In fact, Bush's much criticized trip to San Diego came after he was assured that the situation was under control.
Bush actually did more to help the situation that most people realize. He made several attempts to clear up the FEMA mess (through federal aid and military intervention). All were rejected by Kathleen Blanco, stupid governor of Louisiana.
In appreciation for his efforts, Bush became the blame target for Blanco, Ray Nagin and Michael Brown.

Blanco is most responsible for the extent of the tragedy. Apparently, she had political aspirations beyond being governor and felt accepting federal aid would make her look "weak."
I was astounded as to the extent of her ignorance -- Refusing federal intervention, refusing aid from the Red Cross, ignoring requests from city leaders, turning down efforts by Mississippi and Alabama to coordinate aid efforts.
Example: Amtrak had two large trains in the New Orleans area immediately prior to the storm hitting. They offered to fill both trains with refugees and take them out of harms way. Blanco turned them down, so both trains left empty.
Same with several bus lines. They offered to come in and transport refugees. Blanco said that New Orleans transport would do the job. When, in actuality, buses in N.O. (like the famous picture of the buses sitting in water) had no drivers or gas.

Michael Brown was totally unprepared to handle the situation. After being demoted from cabinet-level post, FEMA was understaffed, underfunded and run by an idiot.
As expected, he totally botched the situation. His superiors rarely knew what was going on until later.

Also (DP will LOVE this one!), the news media made a bad situation a lot worse. Instead of going out and reporting what was actually going on, the majority of the major media sat in a command post and reported hear say.
Example: The morning that the levees breached, the media only reported that water in New Orleans central was going down. This was interpreted in Washington as a sign that things were getting better, not worse.
Exceptions were the New Orleans Picayune and the Dallas Morning News, which actually had reporters out in the field. Which is why they won Pulitzer Prizes, I suppose.

Nagin is far from blameless. As mayor, he knew that close to 30 percent of the city's population had no transportation. He also should have known that, with Katrina striking near the end of the month, many workers and pensioners had little to no money. Since they expected to be paid in a few days.
Nagin ordered an evacuation without dealing with transporting those without such means. He was too stubborn to work out his problems with the state and federal government, which delayed aid efforts endlessly.

SUMMARY: I lost one more major fuckup that I can blame on Bush. Dang it all anyway...