What about if a blizzard stranded you in your home? Shouldn't the government (FEMA) and National Guard help you because you can't help yourself? Or should you and your neighbors dig yourselves out because you live in an area with seriously strong winter weather?
Also, the wildfire victims. Should the government not help those people because they knew they were living in an area where wildfires could occur? Or people living in tornado alley? What if you were in an airplane and it crashed right after take off. Should no one come to help you because, "You know there are dangers to flying and should help yourselves escape an enflamed fuselage." Where would it end. 
I'm sorry monstertruck, but it's the responsibility to help people in need. Not fund them for the rest of their lives, but help them. It's just the 'good person' in me to know that people need help.
and dmas, I know it is ultimately our responsibility to help ourselves. But it's the government's responsibility to keep us safe from levee breaches, crime, terrorism. You could also say it's our responsibility to defend ourselves against murderers and terrorists. Maybe we should all form militias and do away with the Army. Suburban moms can form their own Mommy Militias. 
also monstertruck: no one is going to leave new orleans because it is under sea level. It can be protected from that. Look at the Dutch. Their entire nation is below sea level but have not been flooded for decades.. longer probably but I'm going by memory. The government decided to protect its nation, people, and history by building a secure and safe flood protection system designed by engineers. I'm sure a poor rural housewife could not design something like that on her own.
The last flood in the Neatherlands was 1953. According to Wikipedia "Officially, 1,835 people were killed in the Netherlands, mostly in the south-western province of Zeeland. 307 were killed in the United Kingdom, in the counties of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. 28 were killed in West Flanders, Belgium". It was the result of a combination of spring high tide and a large storm in the area. Time will tell if, when such a combination of events happen again, changes have solved the problem. My guess is flooding will happen there again, and again, they will persevere.
One reason the Neatherlands can exist (about half the surface area about 1 meter under sea level) as it does, is that it doesn't sit in the path of seasonal hurricanes. That's a big help. The Dutch also are smart about the way they handle the situation. Instead of just blocking the water to keep it from coming in, they created dikes, and paths for it to take. They manage the water as best they can, and prepare for flooding. They deal with it.
There is a price to pay for living under sea level. There is a price to pay in one way or another for living just about anywhere in this world natural disasters happen.
So, are you suggesting that no help arrived at all? There was no relief? I think there was help, and there was a huge effort to help those affected by the floods. It's a big job, and there are going to people who don't get help in time. There is no way to fix every problem that crops up in these kinds of situation. You just have to do the best you can. But still, with the help, each individual needs to do his or her part. I think that was done too. I know my company has a shipyard in New Orleans that was severly flooded. We sent a medical team, and a bunch of people and set up a phone center where employees could call in and get assistance from Textron. Despite that fact that there was basically no place to work as the facilitiy was flooded, no employee was let go, they continued to reciever their paychecks during that downtime. The company paid for, and shipped out trailers for each of the affected employees and paid their utilities for 6 months while they got back on their feet.
Anyway, all this talk about FEMA and the suits are unrelated. Apparently the suites are directed at the US Army Corps of Engineers for not securing the levees, allowing the flooding to happen in the first place.
