In Disaster's Aftermath, the Buck Stops at the President's Desk

Communications among emergency personnel broke down almost immediately after the flood, just as on 9/11. Local officials complained about a lack of coordination and a shortage of information from their federal counterparts -- exactly the sort of problems the Department of Homeland Security was expected to remedy. Law and order disintegrated as looters paraded the streets, and stranded residents passed grueling days without aid -- or even any word from anyone in authority on where to obtain it. Perhaps most fundamentally, the flood, just like the 9/11 attacks, revealed a failure of imagination -- an inability to plan for catastrophe on the magnitude in which it arrived.

Disasters, as their sole compensation, can sweep away outdated assumptions. The 9/11 attacks triggered basic reassessments about everything from airline security to intelligence. The "American tsunami" should prompt at least as many questions about the government's ability to plan for, and respond to, catastrophe. And the president should be first in line to ask them.