“It is going to be about as ugly of a scene as I think you can imagine,” said the homeland security chief for the US government, on 5 September 2005. With that, Michael Chertoff understated the essence of Katrina in a nutshell. It was beyond imagination, actually imaginations, of so many. The great sadness is that this was an easy one. Sure, no one can stop a hurricane but the effects of this hurricane could have been softened, its body count so easily diminished. But someone had to have been paying attention, and the right kind of attention. Someone had to have realized the worst case possibilities. [...]