In response to the letter to the editor entitled "Bush incompetence bad for disaster aid" (SN 9/7), New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen. I've known this since early high school. I'm guessing my high school teachers were not the first people to know this. Why has nothing ever been done to strengthen the levees? Nothing President Bush could do was going to prevent this disaster from one day occurring. The city is 8 feet under sea level, full of 480,000 people and contains few roads in and out of it! Want to play the blame game? Blame Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco for not letting the National Guard into the city until late Tuesday to rescue people. Hence, many people were stuck to fend for themselves for close to two days or suffer in the Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center with trash and rotting corpses. She knew well in advance that a Category 5 hurricane (downgraded to a 4 before landfall) was churning off the coast and the levees could only withstand a Category 3 hit. Blame New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin for not finding a way for people, without means, to leave and instead putting 35,000 of them in the Superdome without food or water lasting more than a day. Blame the state and local governments for not communicating well with the federal government, more notably the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Blanco and Nagin's incompetence coupled with poor planning in the past is more to blame for this disaster than Bush.

Mike King
mathematics senior