transcripts (not video)-given to Congress "months ago" says DHS-Katrinia

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_video&printer=1;_ylt=AhbIi9iF09yJOKrnCnsQCOAGw_IE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

Video Shows Bush Warned Before Katrina Hit

By MARGARET EBRAHIM and JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writers 15 minutes ago

............

The Associated Press obtained the confidential government video and made it public Wednesday, offering Americans their own inside glimpse into the government's fateful final Katrina preparations after months of fingerpointing and political recriminations.

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Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said his department would not release the full set of videotaped briefings, saying most transcripts — though not the videotapes — from the sessions were provided to congressional investigators months ago.

"There's nothing new or insightful on these tapes," Knocke said. "We actively participated in the lessons-learned review and we continue to participate in the Senate's review and are working with them on their recommendation."

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, a critic of the administration's Katrina response, had a different take after watching the footage from an AP reporter's camera.

[rodeodance]

1. I do not know if he is referring to the House hearing or Senate hearing or

both--(regarding the transcripts).


......Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said his department would not release the full set of videotaped briefings, saying most transcripts — though not the videotapes — from the sessions were provided to congressional investigators months ago.

[rodeodance]

2. Newsweek saying that WH initially said no such document existed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060302/pl_afp/ushurricanekatrinapolitics_060302084227;_ylt=AlzG9sFyHq7bBMJRBTHKTgqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-


.....Newsweek, meanwhile, said on its website it had received from the White House Wednesday a transcript of an August 29 videoconference call produced by Bush administration officials after they initially told Congress that no such document existed.

According to the transcript, FEMA chief Brown said he had talked by telephone twice that morning to the vacationing Bush about Katrina.

[KoKo]

3. Check out this from the very bottom of the article:

Other officials expressed concerns about the large number of New Orleans residents who had not evacuated.

"They're not taking patients out of hospitals, taking prisoners out of prisons and they're leaving hotels open in downtown New Orleans. So I'm very concerned about that," Brown said.

Despite the concerns, it ultimately took days for search and rescue teams to reach some hospitals and nursing homes.

Brown also told colleagues one of his top concerns was whether evacuees who went to the New Orleans Superdome — which became a symbol of the failed Katrina response — would be safe and have adequate medical care.

"The Superdome is about 12 feet below sea level.... I don't know whether the roof is designed to stand, withstand a Category Five hurricane," he said.

Brown also wanted to know whether there were enough federal medical teams in place to treat evacuees and the dead in the Superdome.

"Not to be (missing) kind of gross here," Brown interjected, "but I'm concerned" about the medical and mortuary resources "and their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe."