According to scientists at LSU, the New Orleans levees were high enough to withstand the surges from Katrina, and failed due to combination of faulty design and bad construction. So much for the "underfunded because of Bush" theory. It also reinforces Bush's statement that no one expected the levees to break. Scientists involved in this stuff didn't expect them to break on Monday once the storm had passed, but they broke anyway. Sometimes bad stuff happens. Blame FEMA for a slow response, but had the levees been built well, it wouldn't have matter. Had the mayor used his own evacuation plan, then there wouldn't have been that many people left to save. Since relatively few died anyway (compared to hysterical media peoples' numbers), I think we should thank our lucky stars that it wasn't worse, and try to plan better for the next time (which is Saturday morning when Rita hits).