Read, weep, repeat.

The major dailies have published articles running down the play-by-play of the first week of the Katrina disaster.

The LA Times:

When it was unveiled amid fanfare in January, the Department of Homeland Security's National Response Plan promised "vastly improved coordination among federal, state, local and tribal organizations to help save lives" from storms, floods, earthquakes or terrorist assaults.

Hurricane Katrina turned out to be its first real-world test — but the plan broke down soon after the monster winds blew in.

Its failures raise unsettling questions about the federal government's readiness to deal with future crippling disasters. An examination of how the plan was administered during the crucial early hours of this natural disaster reveal more confusion than coordination and repeated failures of leadership.

The plan on paper was not always apparent on the ground. Cooperation among government agencies faltered at almost every level, right up to the White House.

The New York Times:

But an initial examination of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath demonstrates the extent to which the federal government failed to fulfill the pledge it made after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to face domestic threats as a unified, seamless force.

Instead, the crisis in New Orleans deepened because of a virtual standoff between hesitant federal officials and besieged authorities in Louisiana, interviews with dozens of officials show.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials expected the state and city to direct their own efforts and ask for help as needed. Leaders in Louisiana and New Orleans, though, were so overwhelmed by the scale of the storm that they were not only unable to manage the crisis, but they were not always exactly sure what they needed. While local officials assumed that Washington would provide rapid and considerable aid, federal officials, weighing legalities and logistics, proceeded at a deliberate pace.

The Washington Post:

Compounding the natural catastrophe was a man-made one: the inability of the federal, state and local governments to work together in the face of a disaster long foretold.

In many cases, resources that were available were not used, whether Amtrak trains that could have taken evacuees to safety before the storm or the U.S. military's 82nd Airborne division, which spent days on standby waiting for orders that never came. Communications were so impossible the Army Corps of Engineers was unable to inform the rest of the government for crucial hours that levees in New Orleans had been breached.

There's plenty of blame to go around, but despite the butt-covering and spin from Washington, the federal response was awful, and probably made things worse. Let's not forget: it was FEMA's job to coordinate the response, so that, if there was confusion at all levels, that's an indictment of FEMA, not an excuse for it.

What also comes through from these reports is the sad role that fear and cowardice, fueled by racist attitudes, played in the disaster. One of the worst stories in this category features the armed closure of a bridge that trapped people in New Orleans, a story that places "Gretna" firmly in the annals of racist tragedy. While many strong and dedicated people worked very hard, it's also clear that small-hearted and selfish people in positions of power, did their part to increase the suffering of hundreds of people.