I think the government did its best. The failure is in the people who blew the money on themselves rather than reconstruction. The same problem happened to many people in the Northridge Earthquake of 1994.

I think the government has failed to step up and help out those who truley need the help. For every con artist who used Katrina as an excuse to recieve relief money there are 10 honest families just trying to put their lives back together before Katrina. I spent many years living in the New Orleans area and have close friends there who are still displaced from their homes and forced to live in a tiny trailer. the insurance companies will not pay them for the water damage to their homes because their Hurricane insurance polices did not cover the storm surge. Which did extensive damage--even more wide spread that the quake in 94 did here in Northridge. As with any natural disaster--the government has a lack of response to the very people who elected them into office in the first place.