As New Orleans descended into chaos and thousands of desperate people along the Gulf Coast pleaded for aid, the federal government began to face increasingly pointed questions Thursday about its ability to respond to Hurricane Katrina.
Former federal, state and local disaster chiefs said that the government has bungled the job of quickly helping the multitudes and had ceded the streets of New Orleans to looters.
"This is a national emergency. This is a national disgrace," said Terry Ebbert, head of New Orleans emergency operations.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency "has been here three days, yet there is no command and control," he said. "We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."
FEMA's director acknowledged that the federal government's response might not have been completely successful, but he defended the agency by saying it did not expect such large-scale logistical problems.
Across the hurricane-ravaged region, the criticism was unrelenting. In Mississippi, the Sun Herald of Biloxi published an editorial blasting relief efforts and the lack of assistance from the National Guard.
And White House press secretary Scott McClellan, in a briefing, faced questions about whether the Bush administration had diverted too much money to the war on terrorism rather than focusing on emergency preparedness at home.
In Washington, President Bush acknowledged the frustration of people who need food, water and shelter.
"I fully understand people wanting things to have happened yesterday," he said in an interview at the White House with ABC's Good Morning America. "I understand the anxiety of people on the ground. ... So there is frustration. But I want people to know there's a lot of help coming. I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees."
The president announced that he would tour the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast region today and has asked his father, former President George Bush, and former President Bill Clinton to lead a private fund-raising campaign for victims. The Bush administration asked for more than $10 billion to cover immediate relief needs, and the Senate approved the measure late Thursday night in a special session, sending it to the House.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff also defended the government's response, saying it is sending in 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to help stop looting and other lawlessness in New Orleans. Already, 2,800 guardsmen are in the city, he said.
But across the flooded-out city, the rescuers themselves came under attack from storm victims.
Some FEMA rescue operations were suspended in areas where gunfire has broken out, said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke. "In areas where our employees have been determined to potentially be in danger, we have pulled back," he said.
Such comments caused more anger in New Orleans.
Mr. Ebbert said that the evacuation of the Superdome, where many refugees had sought shelter, was still going slowly, and he warned that the arena had become an "incredibly explosive situation." He bitterly complained that FEMA was not offering enough help.
"What you're seeing is revealing weaknesses in the state, local and federal levels," said Eric Tolbert, who until February was FEMA's disaster response chief, in an interview with Knight Ridder Newspapers. "All three levels have been weakened. They've been weakened by diversion into terrorism."
He and others noted that Hurricane Katrina is the first major test of FEMA since it became part of the Homeland Security Department, a massive new bureaucracy that many feared would make the well-respected FEMA another sluggish federal agency.
But others, including Mr. Clinton, pointed out that Katrina is one of the worst natural disasters ever to hit the U.S.
"Look what they're dealing with," he said Thursday on CNN. "I'm telling you, nobody ever thought it would happen like this."
Still, experts had predicted for years that a major hurricane would hit New Orleans, swamping levees and filling the city with polluted water.
Just last year, the Army Corps of Engineers sought $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans. The White House slashed the request to about $40 million. Congress ultimately approved $42.2 million, less than half of the agency's request.
The levee system that protected New Orleans was never designed to survive a storm the size of Katrina, said Lt. Gen. Carl Strock of the Army Corps of Engineers during a conference call Thursday.
The slow response to Katrina is a replay of 1992's mishandling of Hurricane Andrew, said former FEMA chief of staff Jane Bullock, a 22-year veteran of the agency. Ms. Bullock blamed inexperienced federal leadership. She noted that Mr. Chertoff and FEMA Director Michael Brown had no disaster experience before they were appointed to their jobs.
In an interview on CNN, Mr. Brown said Wednesday night that the federal government did not expect the problems to be so great.
"We did not anticipate ... that there would be quite the numbers that we are dealing with, and that we would have the logistical problems that we're having getting those people evacuated. ... The levee breaks have been much more widespread than we anticipated."
That explanation didn't satisfy Joe Myers, Florida's former emergency management chief.
"I would think that yesterday they could have flown in," Mr. Myers told Knight Ridder on Wednesday. "Everyone was flying in. Put it this way: Fox and CNN are there. If they can get there. ..."
In a media briefing, the White House's Mr. McClellan faced questions about delays in federal help and whether projects in New Orleans were underfunded because of the Iraq war or other reasons.
"You have more than 50 disaster medical assistance teams in the region. You have some 28-plus search-and-rescue teams deployed in the region. Those efforts are ongoing," Mr. McClellan said.
When asked specifically whether the Iraq war had diverted the administration's attention from domestic priorities, Mr. McClellan replied: "This is not a time for politics; this is a time for the nation to come together and help those in the Gulf Coast region, and that's where our focus is."
But the political debate appeared certain to accelerate.
There were assertions, particularly in reports on CNN, that race and class may be playing a role in how the government is responding to the mounting disaster, setting the stage for a possible bitter national political debate. The White House responded sharply:
"Such allegations are baseless and absurd," Mr. McClellan said. "Our highest priority is on saving and sustaining the lives of all those who are suffering and in need of help."
Also, House Speaker Dennis Hastert raised the rhetoric by saying that it makes no sense to rebuild New Orleans – a city that's 7 feet under sea level.
"It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed," the Illinois Republican said in an interview Wednesday with the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill.
Noting that federal aid would be involved in any rebuilding effort, Mr. Hastert said: "We ought to take a second look at it. But you know we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake fissures, and they rebuild too. Stubbornness."
Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., called the comments irresponsible, and Sen. Mary Landrieu, also a Democrat, urged Mr. Hastert to focus on the humanitarian crisis at hand.
Mr. Hastert issued a clarification Thursday evening, saying that he wasn't suggesting that New Orleans should be abandoned.
"My comments about rebuilding the city were intended to reflect my sincere concern with how the city is rebuilt to ensure the future protection of its citizens," he said, "and not to suggest that this great and historic city should not be rebuilt."
The Associated Press, Knight Ridder Newspapers and staff writer G. Robert Hillman in Washington contributed to this report.
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