Of all the Katrina missteps, the most baffling one (so far)

From a Knight-Ridder review, Katrina: Failure at Every Turn:

The federal Department of Homeland Security, established in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, waited until 36 hours after Katrina struck to declare it an "incident of national significance." The never-before-used disaster designation was established in the post-9/11 National Response Plan to mobilize the full strength of the federal government, including the military, to deal with a catastrophe.

Just think about it: a hurricane -- already determined to be of catastrophic ability -- is heading towards a levee-protected, heavily populated city that lies below sea level as well as a major port as well as a major river transportation system as well as a critically significant number of oil rigs, pipelines, and refineries.

And it's not deemed to be important enough to declare an incident of national significance before the hurricane makes landfall.

That's some severely atrophied, stuffed-in-a-too-small, taped-down-box thinking. Someone's due for an award.