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When Hurricane Katrina roared ashore August 29, 2005, federal and state officials were not prepared for the devastation it would bring--despite all the drills, exercises, and warnings. In this expose?, journalists Cooper and Block show that the flaws go much deeper than out-of-touch federal bureaucrats or overwhelmed local politicians. Drawing on interviews with federal, state, and local officials, they take readers inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security to reveal the inexcusable mismanagement during Hurricane Katrina--the bad decisions, the facts that were ignored, the individuals who saw that the system was broken but were unable to fix it. America's top emergency response officials had long known that a calamitous hurricane was likely to hit New Orleans, but that seems to have had little effect on planning or execution. This book is a wake-up call to all Americans about how vulnerable we remain.--From publisher description.