[TexasWSP]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

Another major (MAJOR) difference: local officials, working closely with the Army Corps of Engineers, have generally had solid plans and a good idea of what was going to happen. Evacuations, sandbagging efforts and reinforcement of levees (including creation of entirely new dikes on the fly) has been borderline seamless all over the state, even in places where it ultimately didn't matter (see: Iowa City).

Of course, this makes sense, because the intense amount of rain over the last 3 months gave plenty of warning, and projections change much more slowly. Additionally, flooding 15 years ago forced a complete evaluation of all levees and rivers, leading to much better build-up (and crazy good ability to predict where breaks would occur).

All this leads to a much more calm scenario, even when 30,000 people are evacuated and an entire city of nearly 200,000 sits under 8 feet of water. It sucks, but it's been handled incredibly efficiently - again, making the story much less sexy.

Honestly, my major take-away from all this has been that I really think much more Katrina blame has to go on local officials than I would have imagined in the past - local government has been, for the most part, outstanding here in the Midwest, and I've changed my mind quite a bit with the way I view actions pre- and post-Katrina in that light.

......Definitely following everything you have said.

Also, it sounds like when people were told to evacuate....they actually did in this situation. Common sense is a great thing to have.