There was a special spot of hell on earth reserved for President George W. Bush on his quick Sept. 2 tour of the Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina. He missed it -- not surprising. It turns out the federal government didn't know that an estimated 30,000 people were starving and dying at the New Orleans Convention Center, five days after Katrina blasted Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

"Don't you people watch television?" an angry Ted Koppell asked Federal Emergency Management Agency head Mike Brown.

Indeed, singer Harry Connick Jr. knew about it and visited, the only "leader" the hurricane victims had seen so far, said MSNBC cameraman Tony Zimbato.

"These are people who believed in the government, who did what they were supposed to do and they were left behind," Zimbato said.

These were the poor who had not picked up their weekly pay check, who had no car to evacuate when the order was first given over the weekend of Aug. 26-27 when everyone else seemed to know that the hurricane swooping in was too huge to endure. Those who did not die made their way to the Convention Center, and were told that relief -- food, water, clothing -- HELP -- awaited them.

Instead they found a deeper rung of hell. But they waited calmly believing their government would not abandon them. When babies and old people started dying from dehydration on day three, some started breaking into nearby stores, doing whatever necessary to survive. Some turned to looting. Fear overtook humanitarian efforts -- no one would go into that hellhole until it was secure.

Zimbato counted 82 buses that were supposed to take the refugees to shelter sitting idly outside the Center perimeter, waiting for the National Guard, the police, someone in authority. No one came.

Please bear in mind -- these are not only our fellow Americans, these are gay people too. A heart-wrenching story in the Bay Windows shares an e-mail from a gay bar owner in the French Quarter writing from his laptop about how his establishment was serving as a safe haven for those caught in the hurricane. The story ended with hurried, dashed-off sentences as the writer had to flee.

And as gay author Christopher Rice noted in our humble story, gays in that New Orleans district don't have cars and thus were also among the abandoned. And what became of them at the Convention Center or Astrodome if they could not find their life partner -- should they ask and risk a homophobic response from hungry, angry people? And what of people with HIV/AIDS who desperately need their medication to survive?

Of course, the religious zealots have laid the tragedy at our feet. "Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city," PlanetOut quoted Repent America Director Michael Marcavage as saying on the organization's Web site. "From 'Girls Gone Wild' to [the gay party] 'Southern Decadence,' New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. May it never be the same."

If Bush has the balls he pretends to have, he will accept the blame, embracing President Harry Truman's famous saying, "The Buck Stops Here." So far, as IN goes to press, he has only said the response has been "unacceptable."

Are you screaming yet? "Unacceptable?" Get that man a dictionary. This is abject failure on the part of the federal government and there is plenty of proof to back that up.

Let's start with the close to hysterical Aug. 2 Hurricane Warning, issued 27 days before Katrina hit. "NOAA is calling for a 95-100 percent chance of an above-normal 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, according to a consensus of scientists at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC), Hurricane Research Division (HRD), and National Hurricane Center (NHC). This forecast reflects NOAA's highest confidence of an above-normal hurricane season since their outlooks began in August 1998," the warning said. "Given the forecast that the remainder of the season will be very active, it is imperative that residents and government officials in hurricane-vulnerable communities have a hurricane preparedness plan in place."

As we know now, there were no advance preparations, despite pleas from the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans who freaked out when federal funding was cut to shore up the levees protecting the below-sea-level city. Two years ago, the federal government predicted this disaster -- but did nothing.

And by the way, day five of the horror and Vice President Dick Cheney was still on vacation and Secretary of State Condi Rice just returned from her Broadway and shoe-shopping spree in New York City. And oh, yeah -- it turns out that FEMA Director Mike Brown's previous experience was as Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horses Association -- a job from which he was fired for incompetence. Not exactly the portrait painted by the White House when announcing his appointment.

Now we must wonder -- especially those of us in earthquake prone and terrorist-targeted Southern California -- just how prepared is the federal government if a natural or man-made disaster were to strike here?

In the weeks to come there will be tons of questions asked and fingers pointed, and stories of survival, heroism, and death. We also profoundly hope there will be questions about how America treats people of color and the poor. How dare we say we want to export democracy, the grand American Dream, when it is clear now to the world that the Dream is but smoke and mirrors.

And the picture of George W. Bush as our post-Sept. 11 leader on the pile of rubble four years ago has been replaced by the president of the United States strumming a guitar at a political photo op in San Diego while victims of Katrina died in the flooded streets of America.

But the American people -- including us -- can rise above the fatal incompetence of its leaders. And we encourage you to contribute in some way. We must try to reach out and yank our brothers and sisters out of hell.