Washington ? Their confidence shaken by Katrina, most Americans don’t believe the nation is ready for another major disaster, a new AP-Ipsos poll finds.

Poor people are more likely to fear becoming victims of the next disaster.

The survey, conducted one year after the devastating hurricane and with much of New Orleans still in shambles, found diminishing faith in the government’s ability to deal with emergencies. It also gave President Bush poor marks for his handling of the storm’s aftermath.

The region could get an eerily timed test of preparedness with forecasters concerned that a storm system named Ernesto could be at hurricane strength as it crosses over Cuba and heads across the Florida Keys this week.

Fifty-seven percent in the poll said they felt at least somewhat strongly the country was ill-prepared – up from 44 percent in the days after the storm slammed ashore on Aug. 29, 2005. Just one in three Americans polled believe Bush did a good job with Katrina, down from 46 percent a year ago.

“Nobody actually realized soon enough what the scope of this thing was,” said Frank Sheppard, a 63-year-old retiree in Valrico, Fla., who considers himself strongly Republican. “The day after, people were actually celebrating.

“They didn’t realize that the levees were deteriorating and breaking at that time.”

One year after Katrina, large areas of New Orleans remain virtually uninhabitable with piles of debris and wrecked cars.

An American flag flies behind a destroyed home in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. The flag was flying Sunday at the site of a memorial to Hurricane Katrina. A year after Katrina, many Americans say they have little faith that the government could handle a new disaster.

Only $117 million in at least $25 billion in federal aid has reached the city, while federal investigators determined that roughly $2 billion in taxpayer money was wasted in no-bid contracts and disaster aid to people who did not need the help.

Norma Guelker, 55, of Bay St. Louis, Miss., still lives in a FEMA trailer after Katrina flooded her home with 7 feet of water. She says there’s no way the government is ready.

Blaming Bush, she said: “There’s no reason for him to be concerned about the people who live here. They’re not the people who vote for him.”

Bush, who visits the recovering storm zone today and Tuesday, has sought to deflect the torrent of criticism, saying that rebuilding takes time.

Democrats are hoping to capitalize for the November congressional elections, such as among black and poor people, many of whom were unable to escape Katrina and the flooding it caused.

Today, Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee planned to release a fresh report that summarizes instances where small businesses in the Gulf Coast region were hurt as limited- or no-bid contracts were awarded to politically connected large firms in the weeks after the storm.

The AP-Ipsos poll surveyed 1,001 adults Aug. 7-9 and 1,000 adults Aug. 15-17 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.