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Tape: Bush, Chertoff warned before Katrina
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-02 08:51
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, put lives at risk in New
Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video
footage.
This frame taken
from secure government video obtained by The Associated Press shows
then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown, center, at
the Homeland Security EOC (emergency operations center) in Washington Aug.
28, 2005, taking part in a government video briefing the day before
Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29. [AP] |
Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina
struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are
fully prepared."
The footage 锟斤拷 along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by
The Associated Press 锟斤拷 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 expressed a confidence on Aug. 28 that starkly
contrasted with the dire warnings his disaster chief and numerous 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.
The White House and Homeland Security Department urged the public Wednesday
not to read too much into the video footage.
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