New Reports Show White House Received but Failed to Heed Early Warnings on Katrina
January 24th, 2006
The WaPo reports today that “48 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, the White House received detailed warnings about the storm’s likely impact.” They knew — the Bush administration had more than adequate warning, they failed to act — they sat back and watched as Katrina unleashed “epic destruction on New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities and towns.”
A 41-page assessment by the Department of Homeland Security’s National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC), was delivered by e-mail to the White House’s “situation room,” the nerve center where crises are handled, at 1:47 a.m. on Aug. 29, the day the storm hit, according to an e-mail cover sheet accompanying the document.
The NISAC paper warned that a storm of Katrina’s size would “likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching” and specifically noted the potential for levee failures along Lake Pontchartrain. It predicted economic losses in the tens of billions of dollars, including damage to public utilities and industry that would take years to fully repair. Initial response and rescue operations would be hampered by disruption of telecommunications networks and the loss of power to fire, police and emergency workers, it said.
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http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1727