While I think this event was to big to really be prepared for, it was forseen as a real threat for quite some time.
The blame for this lack of response falls on Bush and many past presidents and trickles down from there, imo.
"Unacceptable" is the only word I can think of.
The scare part is the mayor is basically like "O ****!" and no one is stepping up to say "No, it's not that bad, we have the situation under control". That tells me how bad it really is, if this administration can't hide it or making a creative talking point to side step it, you know New Orleans is in a world of ****. Literally.