How Lousiana spent its FEMA grant to plan for evacuation of New Orelans

From John Tierney's NY Times column "From FEMA to WEMA" of September 20th:

In 1997, Congress gave FEMA $500,000 and ordered it to develop a comprehensive plan to evacuate New Orleans. The agency passed on the money to Louisiana, which used it instead to study building a new bridge. As Rita Beamish of The Associated Press reported on Sunday, FEMA didn't bother making sure a plan was drawn up - an aide to James Lee Witt (FEMA director under President Clinton) said its job had just been to pass on the money.