Verdict: Unprepared.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Many messages for the American people are emanating from from the hellhole that used to be New Orleans. The most important one can be summed up in four words: We were not prepared.

And if we were not prepared for the arrival of a weather event tracked from its birth with the precision of a space shuttle landing, we cannot possibly be prepared for the lightning-quick devastation of a calamitous earthquake in Los Angeles or a tsunami in San Diego.

Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that we are not even prepared to respond to disasters we have long predicted, and that speaks volumes about the ones we haven't foreseen. Along with terrible suffering and untold loss of life, the deadly storm also has severely damaged Americans' confidence in the competence of their national government.

The post-Sept. 11 promise of protection offered by creation of the Department of Homeland Security has strings attached. An all-consuming focus on preventing terrorist attacks engages choices, some of which contributed directly to the faltering federal response to Katrina.

When 22 agencies were combined to form the mammoth Department of Homeland Security in March 2003, the mandate was clear: Do whatever it takes to protect the nation from acts of terrorism. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, previously a Cabinet-level organization charged with national disaster preparedness and response, was absorbed in the consolidation.

That might not have been a problem had FEMA remained relatively intact under the umbrella of Homeland Security. But instead, it suffered substantial annual budget cuts and losses of key, experienced personnel. Five hundred positions were cut from FEMA's staff, and 75 percent of its local preparedness and first-responder grants were shifted to anti-terrorism activities. The U.S. government sends more than $3 billion to states annually for anti-terrorism but a paltry $180 million for disaster efforts.

The focus on fighting terrorism caused the Department of Homeland Security to adopt an "all hazards" policy that used the same training exercises and equipment to prepare for two distinct types of emergencies: a terrorist attack and a natural disaster. But the first-responder agencies that actually confront disasters complained that a one-size-fits-all approach was a mistake. The Government Accountability Office reported in July that of 39 first-responder departments surveyed, 31 disagreed that the training and grant funds worked effectively for all types of hazards.

Loss of leadership proved as damaging as the funding cuts and the all-hazards focus. The FEMA director is appointed by the president, and experience in handling disaster response isn't a qualification for the post. President Bush appointed FEMA's current chief, Michael Brown, to head the agency after Brown left a controversial stint at the International Arabian Horse Association.

Katrina demonstrated how deeply Brown is out of his depth at FEMA. At one point, he told a television interviewer that FEMA had learned that thousands of people were stranded at the New Orleans Convention Center without food or water only after hearing news re- ports.

Brown may well lose his job as a consequence of FEMA's stumbling response, and the nation's emergency preparedness would be no poorer for it. But it will take more than making heads roll to correct the systemic inadequacies Katrina exposed.

The really harrowing realization surfacing in the wake of this catastrophic hurricane is that significant failures occurred at every level of government: local, state and national. An abysmal lack of planning by New Orleans and Louisiana officials contributed to the suffering of tens of thousands stranded by a weather event that had been contemplated for years.

The political hurricane spawned by Katrina will be raging until the next election, but the nation can't afford to wait to address the problems that a horrified American public - not to mention the rest of the world - witnessed on television.

What Sept. 11 did for the federal government's efforts to combat terrorism, Katrina must do for its ability to respond to natural disasters.