Amusing Scrotum
25th January 2006, 05:53
From BBC News....
Originally posted by Katrina warnings 'went unheeded'
The US government was warned about the risk Hurricane Katrina posed to New Orleans before the storm hit, but the warning was ignored, a senator says.
Democrat Joseph Lieberman, on a Senate panel studying the response to Katrina, said emergency agency Fema had warned on 27 August the city could be flooded.
He accused the White House of being unwilling to hand over documents which might explain why no action was taken.
A White House spokesman insisted the administration was cooperating fully.
Sen Lieberman said the report from Fema had been received by the White House several hours before the storm made landfall on 29 August.
The note warned of the potential for serious damage, loss of power and flooding in New Orleans, he told the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing.
It also predicted that Katrina would exceed the projections of an exercise the previous summer, which had suggested a Category 3 storm would require mass evacuations and could breach the city's flood defences.
Hurricane Katrina was a Category 4 storm with winds of 233kph (145mph) winds when it hit the city.
"What happened to that report?" Sen Lieberman asked. "Why was the president [George Bush] left so uninformed that he said four days later: 'I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees'?"
He said the White House had failed to provide important documents which could explain why the warnings went unheeded and had been reluctant to allow officials to be interviewed.
Sen Lieberman accused the Department of Homeland Security of a "conscious strategy of [delaying] our investigation in the hope that we would run out of time".
'Uncomfortable prospect'
Senate Homeland Security Committee chairwoman Susan Collins, a Republican, echoed Sen Lieberman's criticism of the government.
While some of the president's communications were covered by executive privilege, the administration had gone too far in restricting information about who phoned whom on what day, she said.
Sen Collins has previously criticised the initial response to Katrina as "sluggish" and uncoordinated.
The BBC's James Coomarasamy in Washington says the White House insists it is cooperating fully with the inquiry but when the final report comes out in March, it is likely to be uncomfortable reading for the administration.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4645448.stm
Originally posted by Katrina warnings 'went unheeded'
The US government was warned about the risk Hurricane Katrina posed to New Orleans before the storm hit, but the warning was ignored, a senator says.
Democrat Joseph Lieberman, on a Senate panel studying the response to Katrina, said emergency agency Fema had warned on 27 August the city could be flooded.
He accused the White House of being unwilling to hand over documents which might explain why no action was taken.
A White House spokesman insisted the administration was cooperating fully.
Sen Lieberman said the report from Fema had been received by the White House several hours before the storm made landfall on 29 August.
The note warned of the potential for serious damage, loss of power and flooding in New Orleans, he told the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing.
It also predicted that Katrina would exceed the projections of an exercise the previous summer, which had suggested a Category 3 storm would require mass evacuations and could breach the city's flood defences.
Hurricane Katrina was a Category 4 storm with winds of 233kph (145mph) winds when it hit the city.
"What happened to that report?" Sen Lieberman asked. "Why was the president [George Bush] left so uninformed that he said four days later: 'I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees'?"
He said the White House had failed to provide important documents which could explain why the warnings went unheeded and had been reluctant to allow officials to be interviewed.
Sen Lieberman accused the Department of Homeland Security of a "conscious strategy of [delaying] our investigation in the hope that we would run out of time".
'Uncomfortable prospect'
Senate Homeland Security Committee chairwoman Susan Collins, a Republican, echoed Sen Lieberman's criticism of the government.
While some of the president's communications were covered by executive privilege, the administration had gone too far in restricting information about who phoned whom on what day, she said.
Sen Collins has previously criticised the initial response to Katrina as "sluggish" and uncoordinated.
The BBC's James Coomarasamy in Washington says the White House insists it is cooperating fully with the inquiry but when the final report comes out in March, it is likely to be uncomfortable reading for the administration.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4645448.stm