Friday, February 10, 2006

White House Knew of Levees Failure on Aug 29

Hmm, how ever will this be spun to try to make Gov Blanco & Mayor Nagin look like they dropped the ball? NYTimes: "the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans. But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a fedrl emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 pm on Aug 29, and the WH itself at midnight. "FYI from FEMA," said an email from the agency's public affairs staff describing the helicopter flight, sent Aug 29th night at 9:27 pm to the chief of staff of Homeland Security Sec Michael Chertoff and recently unearthed by investigators. Conditions, the message said, "are far more serious than media reports are currently reflecting. Finding extensive flooding and more stranded people than they had thought -also a number of fires." FEMA's "heck of a job Brownie" will be testifying Fri, and Brown has said: "There is no question in my mind that at the highest levels of the WH they understood how grave the situation was." The problem, he said, was the handicapping of FEMA when it was turned into a division of the Homeland Security Dept in '03." Ahh yes... Homeland Security. Keeping us safe from vegans, Quakers, and 80 yr old nuns... but not REAL threats and dangers.
Posted by Tina :: 12:19 AM :: 1 Comments:

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