The other catastrophic event Mr. Landrieu was referring to is the city’s finances, which he often compares to a gushing oil leak. After he took office, he discovered soaring overtime budgets in many departments, disastrously lax record keeping and a $67 million deficit, about twice what he had been led to expect before taking over.

But the list of catastrophes goes on. The city’s Police Department is so corrupt and ineffective, he said, that he formally asked the Justice Department to investigate, which it is now doing. The city still suffers from a chronic shortage of health care facilities since Hurricane Katrina, as well as glut of blighted and abandoned houses.

All of this Mr. Landrieu highlighted in his first State of the City speech, departing from tradition and delivering it two months into his term rather than waiting for a year to pass. He detailed a series of measures his administration had already taken to reduce the city’s deficit by more than half. And, with fewer specifics, he spoke of deeper cuts to be announced in the coming weeks.

New Orleans residents say that it is early enough in the Landrieu administration  and that memories of the previous one, of broadly unpopular C. Ray Nagin, are fresh enough  that Mr. Landrieu can still emphasize the mess as an inheritance.

“There’s a learning curve for anybody who comes into office like that,” said Jon Johnson, a member of the City Council. “You’ve got to allow the individual the opportunity to know where all the bones are buried. And I think that’s where we are.”

The oil is only the most recent part of that inheritance.

The day that White House officials came to Louisiana, a week after the rig sank and a few days before the May 3 inauguration, was the day Mr. Landrieu said he began to realize that BP and the federal government were not fully prepared.

“They didn’t really know what the long-term consequences were going to be because they didn’t really know how to stop the problem,” he said.