Despite the best efforts of the venomous left and anti-Bush crowd, a vast majority of America does not blame Bush for the problems with the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort.

(CNN) Respondents also disagreed widely on who is to blame for the problems in the city following the hurricane — 13 percent said Bush, 18 percent said federal agencies, 25 percent blamed state or local officials and 38 percent said no one is to blame. And 63 percent said they do not believe anyone at federal agencies responsible for handling emergencies should be fired as a result.

I’ve been away from blogging for a little while. But I think it’s time for me to write. This is going to be a long entry, so you might want to have a seat. I’m not going to throw links to articles or other blogs in this entry. I’m going to assume that everyone has been watching the news and doesn’t need to verify what I’m writing. But if you want to verify, please go ahead and jump on Google.

A lot of blame is being thrown around right now in relation to Hurricane Katrina, both disaster prevention and response. Some have put all the criticism completely on the President. Some have been more widespread with the criticism. I believe it is too early to determine if the Federal response was faulty. I think we can all agree more could have been done, but could it have been known that more was immediately needed? When Katrina passed the Florida coast it was a Category 1 hurricane traveling at 5-8 mph with the iffy prediction that it may or may not increase in intensity. Disaster agencies were then working to prepare for a response proportional to that prediction. On the 28th of August Katrina gained strength to a maximum of Category 5 and increased speed up to 13 mph. The response preparations made the day before were now completely inadequate and they had less than a day to prepare for a much more devastating storm.

When everyone is safe and all efforts are no longer needed to save lives, we’ll have time for agencies to evaluate what they did, why and what information they had when specific decisions were made. Until then, we can only evaluate the preparation. That is a local issue, despite what many believe about the purpose of FEMA or the Federal government in general. I believe it’s vital that we’re very critical of how New Orleans and Louisiana prepared for this type of disaster. Because they are the primary authorities responsible for such action and so immediate action can be taken to improve disaster preparation in New Orleans and other cities.

Here’s a little tidbit about FEMA. It is not a replacement government that rolls into town when a disaster strikes. It does not assume control of all emergency agencies and law enforcement. FEMA is a coordinating agency. They help the local, state and Federal governments manage the various agencies to recover from the disaster. The local and state governments are still responsible to govern and manage their agencies. If you don’t believe me, read the FEMA strategic plan. It’s available to everyone, including local governments.

If proper and prudent disaster preparedness measures were taken, the loss of life could have been significantly reduced. The Mayor of New Orleans has completely failed his city. There were virtually no preparations. The evacuation was slow, but we can attribute some of that to the fact that it was not predicted early enough that Katrina would make landfall with the strength it did to initiate a complete evacuation. However, New Orleans should have had in place a plan and supplies for a short notice significant strength hurricane, which took into account flooding from a levee breach. The “Refuge of Last Resort”, the Convention Center and Superdome were completely unprepared. Both of those buildings have proven to be structurally adequate shelters for Category 4 hurricanes and flooding, but they were not sufficiently prepared. Those buildings should have been stocked with a three day supply of nonperishable food and bottled water for a capacity crowd. In addition, there should have been some medical supplies, medical specialists and law enforcement stationed at those buildings. There should have also been emergency power generators to supply power for lighting and air conditioning with a three day supply of fuel.

The day before the hurricane made landfall and increased strength, the Mayor should have ordered anyone still in the city to take shelter in the Convention Center or the Superdome and have law enforcement forcibly evacuate people there if they would not go willingly.

These measures could have been laid out in a disaster plan that should be practiced several times a year. The supplies in the Convention Center and Superdome should be always stocked, but fully inventoried prior to hurricane season. I’ve seen a lot of criticism about budget cuts to levee improvement and repair, but a levee failure would primarily cause property damage if the above precautions were taken. Loss of life is much more important by far and local governments need to make the preparations that are in their immediate control.

Why is disaster preparedness the responsibility of local and state governments? That is how our government works. There are specific laws that limit the power of the Federal government. The Civil War was fought over that issue. It also makes good sense for local governments to be responsible to preparing for a disaster, manage the initial response and then maintain control of their agencies throughout the entire recovery. They know the area, demographics, geography and other important factors. It doesn’t make sense to put that kind of responsibility in the hands of a Federal agency. That is why FEMA is only a coordinating agency.

Right now in New Orleans the Federal government has pretty much assumed full control. I have no doubt several laws have been broken in regards to that, but people were dying and the local government was either incompetent or incapable of managing their agencies and communicating their needs to higher agencies. Better planning and capable leadership is required when a disaster hits. Both of these are possible to have, but the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana have shown little of either.