WASHINGTON - In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, risk lives in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage of the briefings.
Bush didn't ask a single question during the final government-wide briefing the day before Katrina struck on Aug. 29 but assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

Six days of footage and transcripts obtained by The Associated Press show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

Linked by secure video, Bush's bravado on Aug. 29 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm.

A top hurricane expert voiced "grave concerns" about the levees and then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown told the president and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren't enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome.

"I'm concerned about ... their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe," Brown told his bosses the afternoon before Katrina made landfall.

Some of the footage conflicts with the defenses that federal, state and local officials have made in trying to deflect blame and minimize the political fallout from the failed Katrina response:

_Homeland Security officials have said the "fog of war" blinded them early on to the magnitude of the disaster. But the video and transcripts show federal and local officials discussed threats clearly, reviewed long-made plans and understood Katrina would wreak devastation of historic proportions. "I'm sure it will be the top 10 or 15 when all is said and done," National Hurricane Center's Max Mayfield warned the day Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast.

"I don't buy the `fog of war' defense," Brown told the AP in an interview Wednesday. "It was a fog of bureaucracy."

_Bush declared four days after the storm, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees" that gushed deadly flood waters into New Orleans. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility - and Bush was worried too.

What can I say, Bush is a bastard? Who said a God didn't exist? Maybe the evil do get punished sometimes.

Why isn't anyone responding?

Come on, this is important... >:(

I saw it on the news, this isn't surprising.  I want to hear from all the apologists for bushie and co.  Homeland security my a$$

If there is one thing positive I can say about Dumbya and the gang, and I don't mean to make light of human suffering, these guys are not just screw-ups on SOME things, they're total **** ups on EVERYTHING! If there was something the executive branch was empowered to either do right or screw up, the managed to screw it up every time!  Heck, these guys even reached OUTSIDE the scope of the Constitutional power of the executive branch for even MORE things to screw up!  "Hey, George, you wanna screw something else up? My car needs a brake job."
"Sher thing, me and Chertoff will be right over!"
"Whatdya mean you didn't top 'er off, Mike? We're outta gas.  We can't get to Max's house to screw up the brakes on his car!"
:D

Of course they knew it was a severe storm.  EVERYBODY knew.  He11, it was a category five for at least 2 days before it hit, and the trajectory was plain to see.  Bur given their anti-gov't agenda, I suspect the screw-ups are not accidental.  "See, government ALWAYS screws things up, so lets reduce the size of it and turn these functions over to the private sector.  They never screw up."

From the latest moveon.org newsletter:

At the August 28th briefing, the president was told exactly what to expect:

The chief scientist of the National Hurricane Center warned that a major levee breach was "obviously a very, very grave concern." Bush lied to the entire nation about this point just 5 days later.

Michael Brown told the president that if New Orleans flooded the Superdome emergency shelter would likely be under water and short on supplies, creating a "catastrophe within a catastrophe." Experts and officials implored the President to prepare for, as the AP described it, "devastation of historic proportions."

President Bush didn't ask a single question during the briefing. In the next two days he campaigned, attended birthday parties and played guitar while the worst natural disaster in American history killed over 1,300 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.

I think that about sums it up!

Hey, Georgie screwed up...why doesn't he just admit he was out fishing, or whatever he does on his Texas vacations, while New Orleans as well as other Gulf towns was being pummeled by Katrina..because he does not want to admit his stupid-a$$ mistake, that cost human lives as well as property! Both Bushie and Roy Nagin are screwups....But now I blame Bush the jacka$$ more than Nagin.....

"I am George W. Bush, and I admit to you, the American people, that I really BLEW IT when I said we were prepared for disasters like Hurricane Katrina..." Of course Bushie will never admit to any wrongdoing!

After 9/11 and Katrina, have the Bushies reformed their disaster preparedness policies?  Nope.  If we get nailed with a bird flu epidemic, a natural catastrophe, or, godforbid, another terrorist attack next week, they'll eff it all up just the same!

Watch people in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana starting to get clued onto Bush now...I think everybody has one reason to hate Bush now. People in cotton-farming regions and the Katrina areas (almost the same thing) have a reason to hate him for signing every overly liberal trade agreement in sight and the Katrina response, people in manufacturing regions can hate him for the trade agreement signing and letting China undervalue its currency severely, and letting the US auto industry slide, and people in the mountains hate him for invading their privacy. Soon, the '08 victory will look pretty clear for the Dems, with lots of Repubs switching to the Dems if they run a conservative candidate, not voting, or voting third party...and Dems in Katrina-affected states turning out to vote in record numbers.

God forbid someone defend Bush...  ::) (No offense y'all, just trying to bring up some points.  Nothing personal.)

The fact of the matter really to keep in mind here is that the federal government is supposed to be the SECOND responders to any sort of catastrophe or natural disaster.  The state/city/local gov't is supposed to take care of any imminent/recent event... then the feds will move in if needed.  After the hurricane hit, the fed's had coast guard and all that stuff ready to move in, but the state wouldn't LET them because they didn't want people to think that if they stuck around they'd get help. (Face it, that big of a city? That big of a natural disaster? You can't help EVERYONE.  There simply is not enough willing manpower.  Keyword: willing.)  The media's doing an excellent job of spinning it, by the way. 

I'm sure there's things that Bush could have done differently.  However, the state/city gov't is mostly at fault here.  THEY were the ones who were supposed to be prepared.  THEY were the ones who knew that the levvies were gonna blow.

(And for the record.  Flu epidemic?  Please.  HIGHLY unlikely that it'll ever cross the atlantic.)

Watch people in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana starting to get clued onto Bush now...I think everybody has one reason to hate Bush now. People in cotton-farming regions and the Katrina areas (almost the same thing) have a reason to hate him for signing every overly liberal trade agreement in sight and the Katrina response, people in manufacturing regions can hate him for the trade agreement signing and letting China undervalue its currency severely, and letting the US auto industry slide, and people in the mountains hate him for invading their privacy. Soon, the '08 victory will look pretty clear for the Dems, with lots of Repubs switching to the Dems if they run a conservative candidate, not voting, or voting third party...and Dems in Katrina-affected states turning out to vote in record numbers.


All to true, except the underlined.  Those folks will not be around to vote since they are in refugee camps in other states.


God forbid someone defend Bush...  ::) (No offense y'all, just trying to bring up some points.  Nothing personal.)

The fact of the matter really to keep in mind here is that the federal government is supposed to be the SECOND responders to any sort of catastrophe or natural disaster.  The state/city/local gov't is supposed to take care of any imminent/recent event... then the feds will move in if needed.  After the hurricane hit, the fed's had coast guard and all that stuff ready to move in, but the state wouldn't LET them because they didn't want people to think that if they stuck around they'd get help. (Face it, that big of a city? That big of a natural disaster? You can't help EVERYONE.  There simply is not enough willing manpower.  Keyword: willing.)  The media's doing an excellent job of spinning it, by the way. 

I'm sure there's things that Bush could have done differently.  However, the state/city gov't is mostly at fault here.  THEY were the ones who were supposed to be prepared.  THEY were the ones who knew that the levvies were gonna blow.

(And for the record.  Flu epidemic?  Please.  HIGHLY unlikely that it'll ever cross the atlantic.)


There's no way that state and local officials could have effectively responded to a desaster of such proportions, and everyone knew it.  And everyone with and savvy at all knew the levies could fail.

If, or maybe when, the bird flu evolves so that it can pass from person to person, not just from bird to person, there will be an epidemic to make 1918 look like a minor outbreak of the sniffles, and at that point it WILL cross the Atlantic, and the Pacific.

You're forgetting that the fed's TRIED to get in earlier to help, but local gov't wouldn't let 'em.  Plus, its pretty hard to get willing manpower of that proportion to get in to fix the levees even before they completely buckled in just two days.  By the time we knew the hurricane was gonna hit, it was too late for anyone to fix the levees.  It was just a matter of lessening the damage and providing support for refugees, which the fed gov't responded to.

However, the movement of poor, ticked-off blacks to Texas might combine them with the already existing liberals in Texas' big cities and make them liberal bastions...watch out, Houston!

You're forgetting that the fed's TRIED to get in earlier to help, but local gov't wouldn't let 'em.  Plus, its pretty hard to get willing manpower of that proportion to get in to fix the levees even before they completely buckled in just two days.  By the time we knew the hurricane was gonna hit, it was too late for anyone to fix the levees.  It was just a matter of lessening the damage and providing support for refugees, which the fed gov't responded to.


I'd like to see a source for the assertion that Ted aid was turned away.

Certainly it was too late to fix the levies as the storm approached, but it was known for years that they would not stand a cat. 5 storm and the Fed (the Army Corps of Engineers responsible) did nothing because they weren't given the $$$. 

The Fed (FEMA) responded to the refugee/housing problem by letting several thousand trailers sit in the mud at an airport in Hope Arkansaw.  FEMA also trucked ice to the district, but didn't distribute it for days...one could go on.  Some response.  It was a botched job and no question.

Again - you can't talk about years before, because that was definately not the responsibility of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.  State/local government has that responsibility.  Money should have come in through state revenue, state taxes.  The state government should have made it their priority, the federal government can't do EVERYTHING.  People forget that the federal government is made up of humans, who make mistakes and sometimes things go wrong unexpectedly.  I don't think that the overall job of FEMA was actually that bad - Popular Science did a report on it, I need to dig out the article for specific quotes and such, but overall it asserted that Katrina was handled in a fairly good deal.

Also, you can't keep blaming the Fed gov't for botched housing jobs and ice issues and whatnot - all of that?  That's state/local issues.  Fed responsibilities are one of a supportive nature, backing up local crews and supplies and such.  The state kinda just lazed around and pointed at the mess and went "Oh My God! Fix it! Now!"  No way in HELL is everything gonna go exactly as planned.  It was too big, much bigger than anyone expected, and refugees by no means were gonna get rooms at five star hotels.  Trailers in the mud?  Its a lot better than a tarp in the mud, or a couple of blankets in the mud.  What were they supposed to do?  There was mud EVERYWHERE, might I point out.  Ice that didn't get distributed?  Probably a miscommunication.  It happens.  Its life.  Its too much to expect that everything's gonna go right all the time.

i'm still trying to get my head around this republican CYA line that state and local authorities are responsibile for dealing with wholesale catastrophes. hypothetically speaking -- say there's a 20-megaton nuclear explosion over an american city. are the republicans really going to say, well, it's their responsibility to take care of it? never mind that all of their offices have been vaporized and 80% of their personnel have either been killed or are hospitalized with radiation burns?

i keep saying this, and none of you guys ever answers: how the hell were the local authorities supposed to take care of everything when they'd been displaced, their offices had been flooded out, they're subsisting on MREs and have no reliable communications channels? the prospect would be laughable, if it weren't completely obvious that the next time something like this happens, the republicans in federal government will tell the victims, once again, 'you're on your own.'

and these are the guys who run on national security and keeping america safe! that's the part that's truly amazing.

also, this last from the sunday-morning talk show follies: mike brown was on fox news (i.e., state-owned television) fielding some softball questions so mellow i'm amazed they actually made it all the way across the table (e.g., "why weren't those school buses deployed before the hurricane touched land?") and finally after brit hume has absolutely covered brown's backside with lipstick he finally asks about those bizarre "i'm a fashion god" emails brown was batting around back and forth. get this? brown sez, "oh, well, that was light-hearted  banter intended to boost morale. sorta like when doctors conducting open-heart surgery talk about their golf game."

oh, yeah, and i bet all that fiddle music really boosted morale when rome was burning, too. what a Chuck!

No.  This wasn't a nuclear explosion.  It was a natural disaster.  Big difference. 

The feds DIDN'T leave the state to flounder on their own.  They came in and helped as well.  They just didn't fix everything.  They pretty much had to cover the state's sorry ass.  And before you ask why didn't they fix everything, its because there simply wasn't enough resources.  The majority of the blame should be assigned to the people in the state gov't.

bush scrwed up plane and simple Thank god I Switched Sides (republican turn Democrat in 2004 election)

No.  This wasn't a nuclear explosion.  It was a natural disaster.  Big difference. 

in what sense? certainly not in the sense of the kind of response we can expect from the republican feds. what possible reason would we have to think they'd respond in ANY way differently to a nuclear attack on a particular city than they responded to katrina? all the same half-ass excuses apply -- hey, we would have had to move tons of stuff! why didn't they evacuate? they had twenty minutes' warning! it's the locals' responsibility anyway! it's not our problem!

i rather think it came as news to a lot of people in this country that state and local authorities were responsible for dealing with wholesale catastrophes regardless of their capacity for doing so. i rather think if there's a terrorist attack or nuclear explosion or some other disaster we'll hear the same line trotted out why? because it's a cover-your-ass excuse, plain and simple!

The feds DIDN'T leave the state to flounder on their own. 

that's exacty 100% precisely what they did.

They came in and helped as well. 

how?

They just didn't fix everything.

what'd they fix, besides an ice shortage in north carolina and their own initial failure to have suffienct busywork, roll-up-your-sleeve photo ops?
They pretty much had to cover the state's sorry ass. 

yeah, those damn negligent local authorities. flooded out of their buildings and subsisting on MREs, with all their communications channels down. why couldn't they get off their lazy butts? couldn't they see we were busy trimming hedges in crawford and going shoe shopping?

And before you ask why didn't they fix everything, its because there simply wasn't enough resources. 

??? wouldn't happen to be because a bunch of it was in iraq, wouold it?

bush scrwed up plane and simple Thank god I Switched Sides (republican turn Democrat in 2004 election)
*clapclapclap*

Again - you can't talk about years before, because that was definately not the responsibility of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.  State/local government has that responsibility.  Money should have come in through state revenue, state taxes.  The state government should have made it their priority, the federal government can't do EVERYTHING.  People forget that the federal government is made up of humans, who make mistakes and sometimes things go wrong unexpectedly.  I don't think that the overall job of FEMA was actually that bad - Popular Science did a report on it, I need to dig out the article for specific quotes and such, but overall it asserted that Katrina was handled in a fairly good deal.

Also, you can't keep blaming the Fed gov't for botched housing jobs and ice issues and whatnot - all of that?  That's state/local issues.  Fed responsibilities are one of a supportive nature, backing up local crews and supplies and such.  The state kinda just lazed around and pointed at the mess and went "Oh My God! Fix it! Now!"  No way in HELL is everything gonna go exactly as planned.  It was too big, much bigger than anyone expected, and refugees by no means were gonna get rooms at five star hotels.  Trailers in the mud?  Its a lot better than a tarp in the mud, or a couple of blankets in the mud.  What were they supposed to do?  There was mud EVERYWHERE, might I point out.  Ice that didn't get distributed?  Probably a miscommunication.  It happens.  Its life.  Its too much to expect that everything's gonna go right all the time.


As I said, and you ignored, the levees ARE the responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers, which is controlled by the Fed, at least the last time I looked, and it was the ACE's budget that didn't allow upgrades.

The trailers and the ice were both purchased by FIMA, and under FEMA control.  Anderson Cooper has been following this for months, and those trailers are STILL in Arkansaw in the mud, EMPTY after how many months, while people ARE sleeping in the mud.  The truck drives interviewed were where they were suppose to be as directed by FEMA, with no local distribution available.  One dricer was told to go back to NJ where he picked up the ice, all at tax payers' expense.

How can you say that a cat. 5 storm three days before it hit was "unexpected"?

And before you ask why didn't they fix everything, its because there simply wasn't enough resources. 



You do know that this happened in The United States of America, don't you  ???

bush scrwed up plane and simple Thank god I Switched Sides (republican turn Democrat in 2004 election)



Applause to you.



Cat

bush scrwed up plane and simple Thank god I Switched Sides (republican turn Democrat in 2004 election)



Thank God this country isnt full of complete idiots!

As of yesterday all evacuees being put up in hotels were given their walking papers.