Katrina calamity leaves many questions

People waiting to be evacuated from the Superdome take cover after the National Guard reported shots being fired outside the area Saturday, six days after hurricane Katrina hit the city. PHOTO: AFP

How many victims? Authorities have been unable to provide even a provisional toll of death and injury that could provide a measure of the human tragedy.

One senator has suggest the death toll may top 10,000 in Louisiana, while Mississippi has counted 125 dead.

Why were warnings ignored? Why was relief slow to arrive and the region around New Orleans allowed to sink into chaos?

President George W. Bush said the unprecedented scope of the disaster made it impossible to cope.

"The magnitude of responding to a crisis over a disaster area that is larger than the size of Great Britain has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities," Bush said in his radio address Saturday.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff went further, saying, "It was as if an atomic bomb was dropped on New Orleans."

Still, frustration and anger mounted with the delay in arrival of aid and security forces days after the powerful August 29 hurricane made landfall.

The chaos seen on television around the world has led to embarrassment for the world's most powerful nation.

One factor explaining the slow response was the Balkanization of responsibilities, with a patchwork of municipal, state and federal government agencies that have jurisdiction over the area.

James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation said the disaster was a test for the type of security response needed for other types of catastrophes including terrorism.

"Americans are justifiably horrified by conditions in New Orleans," Carafano said in a research note, while adding, "there is no standard against which the efficacy of the effort to save lives and property can be judged.

"This is the kind of crisis the federal government must be prepared to tackle -- a disaster that exceeds the capacity of state and local governments. As such, it is a fair test for the newly established Department of Homeland Security and the national response systems put in place since 9/11."