I survived Hurricane Katrina.

One of the lucky ones with the means and mode to evacuate the city of New Orleans ahead of the approaching storm, I sat in relative safety and watched tropical force winds whip the trees around my parents house and push the water from Wolf Bay up to their back porch. As waves crashed against the pine trees in their yard, I worried about my friends who stayed.

Many are the reasons that folks decided to stay. Some didn't have transportation. Other's were skeptical of the media's hype about the strength of the approaching storm. A few had sat in horrific traffic during the false alarms of Ivan and other's and weren't willing to do so again. One or two wanted to have a hurricane party in the city that made them famous.

I watched in the following days as New Orleans weathered the storm only to be lost to failing levee's and to the city falling into lawlessness. I watched the faces of those who attempted to return to their homes in Mississippi and found nothing left but the foundation of their houses. I watched the schools in Mobile and Baldwin county of Alabama shut down for a week because of the acute fuel shortage and loss of electricity.

As I sit here and flip through the channels of news, I come close to weeping for my fellow citizens and for myself. I don't know if my house is still standing and the way I deal with uncertainty is to get angry and want to blame someone.

There is plenty of blame to go around:

1) The Army Corps of Engineers have had their budget cut for the past several years. As the main group responsible for the health of a lot of our waterways, it is plainly criminal to reduce their funds. Because of this, the aging levee system that protected New Orleans was allowed to weaken.

2) The folding of FEMA into the Homeland Security Agency, reducing it's disaster management mandate, and appointing to head the agency a political crony of the president. Because of this, reaction time was slow and assistance half hearted at best.

3) The mandatory evacuation for the city not being announced until Sunday, leaving too little time for arrangements to be made for the sheer numbers of folks remaining in the city. With more time, the city shelters would have been up and operational sooner and fewer patients would have been left in the four major hospitals.

4) The deployment of so many of the National Guards personnel to Iraq without adequate planning for replacing them in their role of disaster assistance. Never has there been a greater illustration of the vital part played by National Guard and Reservists here in this country, among our own people. It is hard to believe that the safety and well being of the citizens of the Gulf Coast means less than bringing democracy to Iraq.

5) The slow response from the President and Congress to the magnitude of the disaster. Whole cities have nearly disappeared in Louisiana and Mississippi. Considering the amount of petroleum production, refining and transportation that happens in the Gulf, it amazes me that it took so long for the president to come back from vacation and visit the stricken area and that Congress is debating cutting the Estate Tax while whole families are stricken by this tragedy.

6) The fact that global warming is still not a priority of this country despite clear evidence that it has lead directly to the increase of major hurricanes. We have got to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other pollutants that are destroying the very atmosphere we need to survive.

7) The racism and classism that focused so much time and attention of the major media on the lawlessness of the survivors instead of the heroism. A recent article by a reporter from the Guardian shows that the reports of abuse and violence were greatly exaggerated and, in some cases, didn't happen at all.

I could go on but apportioning blame is hardly where we need to put our energies until after the thousands of displaced, unemployed and injured have received care and attention. I'm hoping that the outpouring of support and concern from the nation and the world translates into material assistance. The Gulf Coast will be years in recovering from this storm. We haven't yet seen the worst but I can only hope that this tragedy will bring out our best.

"Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey; hardship our garment; constancy and valor our only shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted." Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, October 8, 1940