Hurricane Katrina exposed social inequities within the United States in stunning relief. As such, it is quite typical of weather disasters which, with rare exceptions, impact the poor in significantly higher numbers, though rarely is this exposure so dramatic and so widely disseminated. As an event that has rendered visible the failed infrastructure of U.S. disaster preparedness, Katrina has also revealed the relationship of disaster preparedness (or rather unpreparedness) and the current lack of U.S. preparedness for further terrorist attacks. Thus, in this event, we can see the ways that weather preparedness and terrorism preparedness deploy a similar set of narratives about technology, prediction, family, and government protection. [...]