I was over in the US when Katrina struck. Watching the news and from how people were explaining things it would appear that FEMA was set up to liaise with state and local authorities.

There was a plan in force and a system to put it into effect - however both plan and system had one major defect - it relied on FEMA having something in place to liaise with - in the immediate aftermath of Katrina there wasn't.

Had your President immediately dropped everything and dashed to the scene, there would be roughly the same number of posts damning him for the 'photo-op' as there have been complaining about his inaction.

Those who have never experienced the effect of hurricanes should take time out and just think about the difficulties and what it takes to overcome them. You would then be able to assess what could have been done as opposed to an uninformed what should have been done.