From today’s New York Times:

“People didn’t die because the storm was bigger than the system could handle,and people didn’t die because the levees were overtopped. People died because mistakes were made and because safety was exchanged for efficiency and reduced cost.”

Raymond Seed, University of California at Berkeley

Prof. Seed is the lead author of a report released yesterday on Hurricane Katrina. The NYT covered the release of the report in this article yesterday.