This week will mark 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the surrounding coastal regions in the Gulf.  The New York Times has some decent coverage of what it meant for the people of the city, who are now a diaspora. A startling amount of New Orleans relocated to Houston, but Baton Rouge, Denver and other growing cities of the last two decades have received practical refugees from the Big Easy.

The total damage to the city is estimated to be $125 billion, the costliest natural disaster in our nation’s history. Outdated plans. Unresponsive state agencies. Bad communication with federal agencies. There was no one thing that would have saved New Orleans from the disaster of a 28 foot wall of water that passed over much of the city. But misgovernance did mean that the disaster was worse than it had to be, and recovery slower than it had to be. It was the handling of Katrina that, somewhat unfairly, made President George W. Bush a political lame duck early.