WASHINGTON – Most people who lived in south Louisiana 20 years ago can’t help but recall what they were doing, what they saw, and what they experienced when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

Neighbors stranded on their roofs; people shepherding children and the elderly through filthy waist-high water; thousands awaiting evacuation without water and food at the Superdome and Convention Center; police and the National Guard brandishing weapons at fellow citizens; it was all part of the tapestry of a storm that claimed an estimated 1,833 lives, left millions homeless, and caused approximately $161 billion in damage.

Then-President George W. Bush said, “The system, at every level of government, was not well-coordinated and was overwhelmed.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency w

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