New Orleans and other areas maimed by Hurricane Katrina should be pretty, pristine and perfectly rebuilt by now. Shouldn't they? After all, two years have passed since the storm battered Gulf Coast communities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Billions of dollars have been spent, thousands of work-hours logged, and God knows how many prayers murmured to reassemble what the winds and waters of Katrina tore apart.

Actually, two years is not enough time to have completed all the needed repairs, especially in New Orleans, where insufficient levees contributed to most of the city's becoming submerged. But here's the problem in assessing the progress that has been made: Katrina reconstruction has suffered from so much waste, incompetence and indifference that it's impossible to separate challenges caused by nature from the man-made ones.

New Orleans has improved some since the hurricane:

-Its population is at 66 percent of its pre-Katrina size, up from 50 percent last year. Students are returning to schools, though in smaller numbers.

-The region's economy is stronger. Meetings and conventions are at 70 percent of their pre-Katrina level; tourism at about 60 percent. New Orleans' sales tax revenue has returned to 84 percent of its pre-storm level.

None of these achievements would have occurred without public and private aid.

Washington has spent more than $116 billion over these two years. The U.S. private sector donated about $6.5 billion through June for recovery from the 2005 hurricane duo of Katrina and Rita.

Progress also wouldn't have occurred without the tenacity and toil of survivors, and of volunteers who trekked to the Gulf Coast from around the country.

Yet for every positive, problems have lurked a step behind, waiting to trip up success.

The overmatched levees still aren't ready to protect New Orleans from the most serious storms. Urban violence is rising. Local officials have made unhelpful comments. The health-care sector is still reeling.

Piling on top of the enormous challenge of reconstruction is the poor management of federal aid. The Federal Emergency Management Agency misspent an estimated $1 of every $6 of the first $6 billion allocated after Katrina, the Biloxi Sun Herald reported.

Some of FEMA's waste came from contracts that were awarded to politically connected firms that pocketed big bucks even though they poorly performed their tasks. Local, state and national officials had multiple plans with overlapping ideas on how to rebuild New Orleans. It took considerable time to make them resemble a single blueprint.

The federal government, working through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, should have designed a master strategy for housing those displaced by Katrina. Instead, shelter has been a patchwork of badly flawed, short-term solutions.

Some people moved into motels temporarily. Tens of thousands ended up in the infamous FEMA trailers, which were found to have high levels of a toxic gas.

All of this has taken a toll on the spirit and psyche of Katrina survivors. A Louisiana State University survey conducted in 10 FEMA trailer parks found high rates of depressive symptoms. Survivors grapple with mental health issues due not only to life and property lost in the storm but also to trying to untangle the miles of red tape involved in getting government aid.

A suspicion that first arose from the waters two years ago has attached itself to the rebuilding effort - that the Bush administration does not grasp or ideologically rejects the role the federal government should play in such a calamity.

There has not been enough strong leadership from either the White House or Capitol Hill.

Think of the benefits of an attentive president who used his bully pulpit and executive powers. Instead, many Gulf Coast recovery programs are taking a hit in the proposed 2008 federal budget.

The White House also is limiting input from local officials nationwide in crafting a new federal disaster-response plan. Didn't Katrina show painfully enough what happens when all levels of government aren't on the same page in a crisis?

President Bush and candidates vying to succeed him are visiting New Orleans this week to mark Katrina's anniversary. They'll dash in and leave. They will have to use their power and pulpits far more aggressively if as much progress as possible is to be made by this time next year on the Gulf Coast.