Storm Exposed Disarray at the Top: "If Hurricane Katrina represented a real-life rehearsal of sorts, the response suggested to many that the nation is not ready to handle a terrorist attack of similar dimensions. 'This is what the department was supposed to be all about,' said Clark Kent Ervin, DHS's former inspector general. 'Instead, it obviously raises very serious, troubling questions about whether the government would be prepared if this were a terrorist attack. It's a devastating indictment of this department's performance four years after 9/11.'"