The story of Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard's handling of emergency preparations for suburban New Orleans and his leadership post-storm have been widely discussed and documented.  When Broussard stood for re-election, the division of the vote in Jefferson Parish was clear:  Voters whose houses were flooded as a result of Broussard's decision to evacuate pump operators out of the parish voted against him.  Voters in neighborhoods unaffected by these man-made floodwaters supported him.

I heard this on NPR this morning

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4859329

"Morning Edition, September 23, 2005 · In the days before Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, officials in local, state and federal governments held a series of telephone conference calls aimed at coordinating their responses to the storm. The sessions were recorded by Walter Maestri, emergency manager for Jefferson Parish, who shared them with NPR."

Just to add another "everyone -- local, state, federal, everyone -- knew" article to the stack, here's a WP article from last year [2004] when Hurricane Ivan was on track to hit New Orleans. The article has had paragraphs chopped out of it for clarity and concision, and those cuts are not noted, so read the actual article too:

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 14 [2004]-- Walter Maestri, an emergency manager here in America's most vulnerable metropolitan area, has 10,000 body bags ready in case a major hurricane ever hits New Orleans. As Hurricane Ivan's expected path shifted uncomfortably close to this low-lying urban soup bowl Tuesday, Maestri said he might need a lot more.