Responsibilities

USA Today has good, if thin, breakdown of government responsibilities in an emergency, including how they related to Katrina. Each level has its good and bad.

Local:

• Strong calls for evacuation and expectation of flooding.
• No transportation for those who couldn't evacuate themselves and no preparations made at the two main shelter sites.

State:

• Early declaration of state of emergency and relatively good coordination of evacuation routes.
• Slow preparation of National Guard and resistance to properly ask for federal help, even though the crisis was "beyond the capabilities of the state and affected local governments."

Federal:

• Preparations and declaration of state of emergency.
• Pulling resources out of the area and thus hampering their (and probably everyone else's) understanding of what was going on, and weak communication with other agencies and the public.

Obviously, there are more positives and negatives for all levels (and others), but I think those are some of the key points. However, I think there's another factor that many people are overlooking, but I haven't quite put all my thoughts together yet.