This was a response to another thread, but deserves its own thread and discussion. While the Federal government deserves some blame for Katrina, it is funny that the local and state government has gotten a free pass from the media and has since been re-elected. Take 5 minutes to read this and you will learn a lot.
State of Louisiana officials, including Governor Kathleen Blanco and state emergency management leaders, have been widely criticized for delaying the ability of the federal government and outside agencies to Chief among those criticisms is that state National Guard troops under the leadership of Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco were responsible for quelling civil unrest in advance of humanitarian relief efforts, yet they failed to do so in the first few days after the hurricane. In keeping with the constitutional separation of state and federal powers, Federal troops are constrained by law from participating in law enforcement within United States borders by the Posse Comitatus Act, unless the President assumes command of federal and state troops by invoking the Insurrection Act. In this circumstance, the state's National Guard troops become federalized, and the Governor is removed from the chain of command over the state National Guard.

A sitting president does not assume control over state National Guard unless a specific request originates from a governor. No such request originated from Blanco's office in the aftermath of Katrina. In fact, shortly before midnight on Friday, September 2, the Bush administration sent governor Blanco a request to take over command of law enforcement and the state National Guard, but this request was rejected by Blanco.[49] Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi also rejected a similar request.

Governor Blanco did make a request to the Federal government for additional National Guard troops (to supplement the 5,700 Louisiana National Guard troops available in Louisiana at the time).[50] However, the necessary formal request through the Federal National Guard Bureau was not made until Tuesday, a full day after the hurricane hit and when much of the city was already under water. Blanco also failed to activate a compact with other states that would have allowed her to bypass Washington in a request for additional troops. Even if an earlier request had been made, the logic of mobilizing troops from outlying areas, such as Arizona or California is regarded as questionable by many, given the closer proximity of Federal U.S. First Army troops under the direction of Lieutenant General Russel L. Honoré.

To the extent that the lax security situation in New Orleans delayed or prevented humanitarian aid workers from entering the city safely in the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina, state officials can be held accountable.

Press reports indicate that there were other failures at the state and local level in expediting aid and social services to the stricken area. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin accused the governor of delaying federal rescue efforts, "I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision. It would have been great if we could have [...] told the world that we had this all worked out. It didn't happen, and more people died."[51] A FEMA official has claimed that Gov. Blanco failed to submit a request for help in a timely manner, saying that she did send President Bush a request asking for shelter and provisions, but didn't specifically ask for help with evacuations. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has concluded, that Blanco did submit requests for shelter, counseling and provisions in a timely manner, but there is no mention that she requested assistance with evacuation. One aide to the governor said that Blanco thought city officials were taking care of the evacuation in accord with the city's emergency plan.[52]

There were reports that Governor Blanco was reluctant to issue a mandatory evacuation order until President Bush called to personally ask that she give the order. Howver, the mandatory evacuation order was issued by Mayor Nagin, and it is unlikely the Bush call was decisive in the making of the order.[53] At the August 28 press conference in which Nagin and Blanco ordered the evacuation of New Orleans, Blanco actually said that Bush had called, "just before we walked into this room" to share his concerns and urge that the city be evacuated.[54]

Bill Jefferson (D-Louisiana) a Representative for Louisiana from the New Orleans area, was criticized when he had misused National Guard resources to check on his personal belongings and property on September 2, during the height of the rescue efforts.[55] He used his political position to bypass military baricades and delay two heavy trucks, a helicopter, and several National Guard troops for over an hour to stop at his home and retrieve, "a laptop computer, three suitcases, and a box about the size of a small refrigerator".[56]

Many have also criticised the local and state governments, who have primary responsibility for local disasters. Mayor Nagin was criticised for allegedly failing to execute the New Orleans disaster plan, which called for the use of the city's school buses in evacuating residents unable to leave on their own. The buses were never deployed and then destroyed in the flooding.

On Saturday August 27, several hours after the last regularly scheduled train left New Orleans, Amtrak ran a special train to move equipment out of the city. The train had room for several hundred passengers, and Amtrak offered these spaces to the city, but the city declined them, so the train left New Orleans at 8:30 p.m., with no passengers on board.[57]

Having chosen the Superdome as the refuge of last resort, some have alleged that the Mayor did not preposition food and water.[attribution needed] While accepting that if the Superdome had not been opened up to the public, as requested by the Mayor, the casualties would have almost certainly have been far greater, some claim that, had he used the plan the city developed, the people would have been bused out of New Orleans and the catastrophe would have been ameliorated.[citation needed]

However, Governor Blanco has said FEMA had asked for school buses not to be used as they were not air-conditioned, and a potential risk of causing heat stroke, and that FEMA had informed them of more suitable buses that they would be providing.[58] Concerned over the slow reaction, Blanco sent in the state's fleet of 500 buses to aid in the evacuation process. It was not until late on August 31 that Blanco learned the FEMA buses were being sent from outside the state, and could not arrive in time.[58]

Conditions amidst the aftermath of the storm worsened, and included violent crimes, shootings, and lootings. One New Orleans police officer likened the conditions in the aftermath to Somalia, saying, "It's a war zone, and they're not treating it like one."[59] Officers had been giving up after working days straight with little or no support. President Bush said that saving lives should come first, but he and the local New Orleans Government also stated that they will have zero tolerance for looters. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan affirmed that looters should not be allowed to take food, water or shoes, that they should get those things through some other way.[60] Gov. Blanco warned that troops had orders to shoot to kill, saying, "These troops are fresh back from Iraq, well trained, experienced, battle tested and under my orders to restore order in the streets. ... They have M-16s and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will."[61]

The convention center conditions were described as appalling, having become surrounded by refuse, human feces and even corpses. The downtown Charity Hospital has had a number of critically ill patients die as a result of delays in evacuations. The flooding of New Orleans occurred after the worst of Hurricane Katrina's fury had been spent and the storm itself moved further north. The destruction wrought by Katrina, and the flooding thereafter, severely damaged the roads and other infrastructure needed to deliver relief.

Officers from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, the Gretna City Police Department, and the Crescent City Connection Police blocked the Crescent City Connection to block evacuees crossing the Mississippi River from New Orleans into their area.[62] Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson told UPI, "There was no food, water or shelter in Gretna City. We did not have the wherewithall to deal with these people. If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now - looted, burned and pillaged."[63]

Later, an independent investigation of the pre-Katrina levees that protect New Orleans, alleged that the Levee Board had mismanaged funds and also, "paid more attention to marinas, gambling and business than to maintaining the levees.[64]