What surprised me, as I delved deeper, was how many reports about New Orleans’ vulnerability had already been published and made available on the Internet. NPR and PBS had also raised the alarm. But none of these stories had gained traction — not even the remarkable series that appeared in the Times-Picayune of New Orleans even before the city faced Ivan.

The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources sent her a 30 page booklet.

Titled “America’s Energy Corridor,” it illustrated for anyone who bothered to take a look how a third of the nation’s oil and gas supply was delivered through the ecosystem south of New Orleans, which was “on the verge of collapse.”

That booklet was distributed throughout Washington, one of the contributors told me. But, he added, “It couldn’t compete with Iraq.”

She met with business owners, economists, engineers, environmentalists, and first responders in New Orleans. They told her that they had long shared her concerns.

The situation was growing dire. Their attempts to interest federal officials had met with little success. They were repositioning themselves to take their concerns to the American public. They could not rest in their struggle for attention because the consequences of failure were so severe.

The president of Whitney National Bank, which has investments spread across southern Louisiana, summed up the situation best.

“I fear,” said R. King Milling, in an elegant, almost meticulous drawl, “that our predicament will not be taken seriously until we are in the midst of a national disaster.”

Her book proposal predicted, in large measure, the tragedy that has swept across the Gulf Coast. She argued that “Homeland Security had focused more on vague fears of terrorism than on known and predictable disasters.”

Finally, I quoted Mark Davis, one of the leaders of a coalition that had been begging federal officials for help.

“It’s a collapse,” Davis lamented, referring to Jared Diamond’s recent book by that title.

“We’re seeing an ecological collapse, and a collapse of institutional responsibility.”

This was her editor’s response:

“As much as I hate saying this,” she wrote, “the only way for this book to actually work is if New Orleans had already sunk.”

Katrina struck four months later.

The president’s response: "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees."

Try telling that to Mara Leveritt.