http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060827/ap_on_go_ot/katrina_fema_2;_ylt=ArVdXKYHEjG4pgZffGOjIkW9IxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--

the track for ernesto is mid-north FL. like the hudson area north. then up the east coast. that's the last i saw.

Im just not seeing how they can be "ready" when so much of the city is still a wasteland from the last time :no and there was so much controversy over the slap together job that was done to patch some of the levees back together.

I hope for the sake of LA, that they dont get hit by anything big this year at all.

:thinkin ...I think I will go with the Army Corp of Engineers over FEMA on this one.....not quite ready!!

I agree, Apryl!

But I'm also with you, Judy! I'd support the Army Corps much faster than FEMA.

i agree that they can't be ready, but hopefully with ernesto not heading that way they'll have a bit more time to prepare

it will be years before New Orleans can handle a storm surge.

part of the destruction from katrina was that the gov't knew that the levies wouldn't hold years and years before katrina and they did NOTHING to reinforce them. they've admitted they knew it wouldn't hold. i'm not saying they wouldn't have collapsed anyway but the gov't officials in charge of the levy system knew a cat. 3+ would compromise their integrity enough that they could collapse. the levies didn't break with the storm surge they broke after. the storm surge did go over the levies but the damage wouldn't have been so bad if the levies had held.
this is a copy of an excerpt from an artile i found on wilkipedia:
Analysis of New Orleans levee failures
Main article: Levee failures in Greater New Orleans, 2005
New Orleans' levee failures were found to be primarily the result of system design flaws, combined with the lack of adequate maintenance. Those responsible for the conception, design, construction, and maintenance of the region's flood-control system apparently failed to pay sufficient attention to public safety, according to an investigation by the National Science Foundation.[79]

According to new modeling and field observations by a team from Louisiana State University, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), a 200-meter wide canal designed to provide a shortcut from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico, helped provide a funnel for the storm surge, making it 20% higher and 100%-200% faster as it crashed into the city. St. Bernard Parish, one of the more devastated areas, lies just south of the MRGO. The Army Corps of Engineers disputes this causality and maintains Katrina would have overwhelmed the levees with or without the contributing effect of the MRGO.[80]

On April 5, 2006, months after independent investigators had demonstrated that levee failures were not due to natural forces beyond intended design strength, Lt. Gen. Carl Strock testified before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water that "We have now concluded we had problems with the design of the structure." He also testified that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not know of this mechanism of failure prior to August 29, 2005. The claim of ignorance is refuted, however, by the National Science Foundation investigators hired by the Army Corps of Engineers, who point to a 1986 study by the Corps itself that such separations were possible in the I-wall design.[81]this is from the site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina#Analysis_of_New_Orleans_levee_failures
this is from the news in houston during the time. it may have been different in other places. but ya'll are right the city of new orleans nor many other places hit by katrina will be ready for a major hurricane for years to come.