This American Life has a special episode on Hurricane Katrina this weekend.
Where you can listen in your area.
In the first five minutes, Ira Glass quickly debunks the idea (peddled by the Secretary of Homeland Security, among many others) that the federal government had no authority to act and preposition assets until called to do so by state and local authorities. By declaring a state of emergency in Louisiana, president Bush had given the federal government all the authority it wanted. Moreover, there are new powers under something called the "National Response Plan" where the Secretary of Homeland Security can deploy federal assets even without ANY declaration of emergency by anyone, local, state, or federal.
The rest of the show is dedicated to giving voice to people who actually lived through this nightmare.
Absolutely required listening.
