I only half agree with you. Money wasn't the only difference between these two, but it's far from the least important.

First of all, the two disasters aren't really comparable in terms of the amount of destruction and the number of people affected. But given the exact same type of disaster in both areas, I'm sure these California residents affected by the fire would still fare better than the New Orleans residents. I'm not saying that everyone in California is rich, but I would guess that the average California evacuee is probably better off than the average New Orleans resident that was stranded in Katrina. And in this particular type of disaster, money opens up a lot of options that probably weren't available to the NOLA residents. If you think about it, why did the NOLA residents end up in the superdome in the first place? People with the means to leave and the money to get a hotel room probably did so. It's only the stragglers that didn't have that option that ended up in the superdome.

This isn't the huge, widespread EOTW type of event that has people bartering for food and trading ammo, it's just small (relative to Katrina) wildfire where life is still normal for most people. And in everday life, cash is still king.

And to bring up your other points:

1) Socal has leadership - I have not seen any outstanding example of leadership during these fires. Maybe from the fire crews, but what has the government done so far?

2) Socal had planning - We knew the Santa Ana's were coming, just like they do every year, just like NOLA knew katrina was coming. I don't think most people took any extraordinary precautions, and we aren't any better prepared than any other state. If anything, we're probably a little worse than most, because we haven't had a "big one" in a long time. People tend to forget the dangers unless it recurrs every year.

3) NOLA residents were dependent - Yes, they lacked money, was supported by the government. Where was most of the middle class during Katrina? Probably in some other state, far away from the Superdome.

4) Government learned from NOLA - As I said in the first point, I haven't seen any oustanding examples of leadership. There are still complaints of wasted resources, tankers sitting on the ground instead of fighting the fires, crews not communicating. I think Katrina was just too big for anybody to handle, I seriously doubt if another Katrina happened here, they'd be any better prepared than they were before.