In February 2006 a select committee of the House of Representatives published its report on the response to Hurricane Katrina. Its title was “A Failure of Initiative.” The preface said: “If 9/11 was a failure of imagination then Katrina was a failure of initiative.”
The report faulted Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for not using a federal plan that would have sent help to the states “rather than waiting for them to request it.” It said he carried out his responsibilities “late, ineffectively or not at all.” NBC News reported that the Coast Guard “alone rescued nearly half of 75,000 people stranded in New Orleans.”