Sir

Your Editorial “The gathering storm” (Nature 441, 549; 200610.1038/441549a) states: “the voters of New Orleans, many still scattered across the country, managed last month to re-elect Mayor Ray Nagin, the individual most closely associated with the city's woeful failure to prepare itself for the storm.” As an affected resident of the region, I find this statement both untrue and an obstacle to better preparedness for future disasters that will impact on this country.

Although your statement may resemble truth for those who watched the disaster on television, for those who lived through it, Mayor Nagin is associated with a city and region that was as prepared as much as reasonably possible. If not for his leadership, many more would have died and long-term recovery would be much further behind.

A Times-Picayune article of 27 August 2005, two days before landfall, notes that Nagin “would stick with the state's evacuation plan” developed by state and local officials after Hurricane Ivan. The successful implementation of this plan facilitated the evacuation of more than a million people during a 48-hour period, an accomplishment considered impossible by all the experts. A US Army Corps of Engineers study, for example, concluded that 72 hours would be required to evacuate New Orleans.

Additionally, there has been much discussion of the difficulties faced by 100,000 residents without access to private transport. However, the available data indicate that approximately 65% of people without vehicles left the city before the onset of hazardous conditions.

For those who faced serious difficulties in leaving the city, local officials provided the Superdome as a shelter of last resort. The use of the Superdome has been the subject of much criticism. However, of the 72,000 people who remained in the city after the evacuation, 26,000 were protected from Katrina's winds and floodwaters because of this shelter. Hundreds of these people would have died if the city had not provided this shelter of last resort. Contrary to the common perception, the people in the Superdome were provided with food, water and security. The nightmare only began when the Federal Emergency Management Agency was three days late in sending the buses for post-storm evacuation.

Many people in the United States believe that the lesson to be learned from Hurricane Katrina is that a catastrophe happened because the state and local officials were not prepared. However, the evidence on the ground indicates an unprecedented level of preparedness at the state and local level. Yet a catastrophe still occurred. In my opinion, the lesson to be learned is that, even in a context of extensive preparedness, state and local officials will be overwhelmed by natural hazards of extraordinary magnitude, and that the country as a whole needs to be prepared for this outcome. As your Editorial points out, we are likely to be entering an era of more frequent and more intense hurricane and flood disasters.