“Now wait a minute, lady.”

This was the man who delivered the commentary. When I recently toured the parts of New Orleans that were devastated by Katrina.

In the worst-hit areas houses lay crumpled. Many had been swept from their foundations and floated down the block until they crashed into other houses. Or into trees and telephone poles.

Many were brick. They withstood the floodwaters outside. But were gutted, down to their studs, windows smashed, doors bashed in.

Many suffered only a foot or two of water. But in the sweltering months that followed, they rotted. Because their owners were prohibited from returning to clean and air them. Or to protect them from looting.

Every few minutes a Canadian woman on the tour exclaimed “The government ought to do something about this.” “The government should be ashamed.” “Why hasn’t the government done more for these people?”

After several such comments the tour guide pulled the van to the curb.

“Now wait a minute, lady.”

He explained that it was an agency of the government that caused most

of the Katrina problems. “The Army Corps of Engineers,” he said.