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dc


Dooney & Bourke

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Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina
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Hot off http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ....
Remember when Bush said that "nobody anticipated the breaching of the levees?" Ummm, dude, you're on candid camera.

This does make it ever so much more apparent (as many of us said at the time) that Brown was being made a scapegoat. He's many things, and he was totally unqualified for his job, but here he is on tape *begging* for resources before the storm, and they show Chertof looking "relaxed" ("...A relaxed Chertoff, sporting a polo shirt, weighed in from Washington at Homeland Security's operations center. He would later fly to Atlanta, outside of Katrina's reach, for a bird flu event...") and Bush on vacation, not even asknig any questions as he's briefed on the damage to come... ugh. So sad. It goes a long way to back up Brownie's recent testimony as well - the blame really does go to the very highest levels. Can't wait to see how soon this gets buried or ignored...

From the Wash Post - I cut and pasted b/c it's register-only (you can also view the video there - it's on the home page, not sure if they make you sign in to watch the video):

Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina
By MARGARET EBRAHIM and JOHN SOLOMON
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 1, 2006; 6:15 PM

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.

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 _ along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press _ 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's confidence on Aug. 28 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of 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.

Some of the footage and transcripts from briefings Aug. 25-31 conflicts with the defenses that federal, state and local officials have made in trying to deflect blame and minimize the political fallout from the failed Katrina response:

_Homeland Security officials have said the "fog of war" blinded them early on to the magnitude of the disaster. But the video and transcripts show federal and local officials discussed threats clearly, reviewed long-made plans and understood Katrina would wreak devastation of historic proportions. "I'm sure it will be the top 10 or 15 when all is said and done," National Hurricane Center's Max Mayfield warned the day Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast.

"I don't buy the `fog of war' defense," Brown told the AP in an interview Wednesday. "It was a fog of bureaucracy."

_Bush declared four days after the storm, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees" that gushed deadly flood waters into New Orleans. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility _ and Bush was worried too.

White House deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Brown discussed fears of a levee breach the day the storm hit.

"I talked to the president twice today, once in Crawford and then again on Air Force One," Brown said. "He's obviously watching the television a lot, and he had some questions about the Dome, he's asking questions about reports of breaches."

_Louisiana officials angrily blamed the federal government for not being prepared but the transcripts shows they were still praising FEMA as the storm roared toward the Gulf Coast and even two days afterward. "I think a lot of the planning FEMA has done with us the past year has really paid off," Col. Jeff Smith, Louisiana's emergency preparedness deputy director, said during the Aug. 28 briefing.

It wasn't long before Smith and other state officials sounded overwhelmed.

"We appreciate everything that you all are doing for us, and all I would ask is that you realize that what's going on and the sense of urgency needs to be ratcheted up," Smith said Aug. 30.

Mississippi begged for more attention in that same briefing.

"We know that there are tens or hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana that need to be rescued, but we would just ask you, we desperately need to get our share of assets because we'll have people dying _ not because of water coming up, but because we can't get them medical treatment in our affected counties," said a Mississippi state official whose name was not mentioned on the tape.

Video footage of the Aug. 28 briefing, the final one before Katrina struck, showed an intense Brown voicing concerns from the government's disaster operation center and imploring colleagues to do whatever was necessary to help victims.

"We're going to need everything that we can possibly muster, not only in this state and in the region, but the nation, to respond to this event," Brown warned. He called the storm "a bad one, a big one" and implored federal agencies to cut through red tape to help people, bending rules if necessary.

"Go ahead and do it," Brown said. "I'll figure out some way to justify it. ... Just let them yell at me."

Bush appeared from a narrow, windowless room at his vacation ranch in Texas, with his elbows on a table. Hagin was sitting alongside him. Neither asked questions in the Aug. 28 briefing.

"I want to assure the folks at the state level that we are fully prepared to not only help you during the storm, but we will move in whatever resources and assets we have at our disposal after the storm," the president said.

A relaxed Chertoff, sporting a polo shirt, weighed in from Washington at Homeland Security's operations center. He would later fly to Atlanta, outside of Katrina's reach, for a bird flu event.

One snippet captures a missed opportunity on Aug. 28 for the government to have dispatched active-duty military troops to the region to augment the National Guard.

Chertoff: "Are there any DOD assets that might be available? Have we reached out to them?"

Brown: "We have DOD assets over here at EOC (emergency operations center). They are fully engaged. And we are having those discussions with them now."

Chertoff: "Good job."

In fact, active duty troops weren't dispatched until days after the storm. And many states' National Guards had yet to be deployed to the region despite offers of assistance, and it took days before the Pentagon deployed active-duty personnel to help overwhelmed Guardsmen.

The National Hurricane Center's Mayfield told the final briefing before Katrina struck that storm models predicted minimal flooding inside New Orleans during the hurricane but he expressed concerns that counterclockwise winds and storm surges afterward could cause the levees at Lake Pontchartrain to be overrun.

"I don't think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not but that is obviously a very, very grave concern," Mayfield told the briefing.

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."

-- Edited by dc at 19:04, 2006-03-01

-- Edited by dc at 19:05, 2006-03-01

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bumblebee


Coach

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i just read your posting, but didn't click on the link--is this new video footage that has just come out?

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dc


Dooney & Bourke

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bumblebee wrote:
i just read your posting, but didn't click on the link--is this new video footage that has just come out?


The AP just uncovered it, yes. The Post's home page says,"Confidential video obtained by AP shows disaster officials warned that the hurricane could breach levees, risk lives and overwhelm rescuers." They also have a video theere of Mayor Nagin's reaction today but I haven't watched that yet...

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bex


Chanel

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msn homepage just loaded this video link as well....

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bumblebee


Coach

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yikes.  smoking gun. 

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kittenheels


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That is heartbreaking.  I cannot understand how they screwed this up so badly.

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kisa


Dooney & Bourke

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It's awesome that a video like this got out!

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Aurora


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I'm not trying to start anything or be a bitch but I am so sick and tired of everyone blaming bush for the disaster in LA (not on here but in the media).  Being from LA the levee issues were nothing new.  We talk about them every year before hurricane season and to blame bush and the federal government is absolutely riduculous!!  The levees broke in hurricane camille which was in the late 60s so there have been many people in washington that could have done something since then.  why is it all the sudden bush's fault?  I think its just as much the fault of the government in LA as it is the federal government's fault.  I don't understand the attitude back home of the state can't do anything for itself its all up to the federal government to help us/save us.  Sadly that attitude will never go away and LA will never get better.

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dc


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Aurora wrote:

I'm not trying to start anything or be a bitch but I am so sick and tired of everyone blaming bush for the disaster in LA (not on here but in the media).  Being from LA the levee issues were nothing new.  We talk about them every year before hurricane season and to blame bush and the federal government is absolutely riduculous!!  The levees broke in hurricane camille which was in the late 60s so there have been many people in washington that could have done something since then.  why is it all the sudden bush's fault?  I think its just as much the fault of the government in LA as it is the federal government's fault.  I don't understand the attitude back home of the state can't do anything for itself its all up to the federal government to help us/save us.  Sadly that attitude will never go away and LA will never get better.

The issue here is not blame so much as what Bush & co knew and when, and what he later claimed to know.  And the fact is that while people flailed on all levels, Bush did later try to deflect blame from the Fed/ Gov by lying about what they knew.   He allowed Brownie to be a scapegoat, when this tape shows that he actually was trying but met with little or no help from DHS and the Fed. Gov. We were not prepared on a federal level to provide the help N.O needed.  If as you point out they've known about the levees for years, Bush's comment about nobody anticipating the breach holds even less water.  Pardon the pun.  It's just like with 9/11, when they claimed that nobody would anticipate planes flying into the WTC,when actually there had beeen speculation to that effect.  It's just a lie. 


That said, yeah - on a local level, also a mess.  But in a disaster of that scale, you need the federal govt's help.  You don't need them to bail you out, but you need them to support and back you up and that really didn't happen. It certainly did not help that Gov Blanco was telling Bush that everything was fine and the levees were holding 3 hrs after the storm.  However, that doesn't change the fact that many models were done before the storm (I watched them over and over) showing that it was possible and then the warnings revealed on the tape.  So what Blanco said after the fact does not change that Bush lied about being unpreapred because "nobody anticipated" the scenario.  Plenty of people did, but nothing was done on either the federal or local level to prepare.  And it is, in fact, the Fed Govt's job to ensure that localities are prepared and to step in if they are not. There's no excuse for allowing so much time to go by in the aftermath before acting.  No excuse whatsoever. Bush should not take all the blame, no, but he is the PRESIDENT and is by no means blameless - far from it.  Ultimately he must be accountable for things that happen in this country and he does everything possible to avoid accountability.  If I did that at my job, I'd be fired. 



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dc


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After I wrote the above, read this by Eugene Robsinson in the Wash Post, which pretty much says what I meant about helping local officials, etc:


"This Is 'Fully Prepared'?
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, March 3, 2006; A17


"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."


George W. Bush said those words to Diane Sawyer last Sept. 1, when desperate people in flooded New Orleans were still being rescued from their roofs. Now we know that just four days earlier, in a videoconference briefing, one of the nation's leading hurricane experts had explicitly warned that failure of the protective levees was "a very, very grave concern."


We also know that in his final briefing before Hurricane Katrina hit, the president did not ask a single question. He did, however, reassure local officials that help would soon be on the way. "I want to assure the folks at the state level that we are fully prepared," Bush said.


Given what happened over the following week, all I can say is: Be afraid. Be very afraid.


At least now I know why the White House is so obsessively secretive about its decision-making process. The leaked videotapes and transcripts of pre-Katrina briefings that were obtained this week by the Associated Press leave in tatters the defining myth of the Bush administration -- an undeserved aura of cool, unflinching competence and steely resolve. Instead, the tapes show bureaucratic inertia and a president for whom delegation seems to mean detachment.


The briefings were held as satellite photos showed monstrous Katrina practically filling the whole Gulf of Mexico, and there was nothing that could have been done to save the Gulf Coast from a terrible blow. However, there was much that could have been done to organize and support evacuation, rescue and relief efforts. The federal government had learned, for example, that local officials in Louisiana had mounted no effective effort to evacuate people from institutions -- hospitals, prisons, schools. Yet the federal response was essentially a shrug.


What we didn't know before these tapes came out is how specifically the president had been warned of the impending disaster, in all its particulars. The story was foretold days before the hurricane made landfall.


The hapless Michael Brown proved to be a disaster as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but in the days before Katrina hit he did a pretty good job of sounding the alarm. His hair was on fire as he tried to get his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and the White House to pay attention and absorb the fact that this was the "big one."


The president was attending the briefings via secure video from his ranch in Crawford, Tex. After hearing what he heard, how could he have told anyone the federal government was "fully prepared" to help? And how on earth could he have said days later that no one thought the New Orleans levees might fail?


In a way, I'd worry less if I thought the president were being intentionally duplicitous. But I worry that somehow he didn't fully take in the reality of the situation, let alone its gravity. His response was to sign all the right pieces of paper and then reassure others, and perhaps himself, that everything was under control when it should have been obvious that nothing was under control.


The day after his claim about no one anticipating the failure of the levees, when the federal response was still a chaotic and ineffectual mess, Bush uttered the immortal line to his foundering FEMA director: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." Did he really believe that?


A chief executive who isolates himself from bad news is one thing. A chief executive who hears bad news, in detail, and then plays it back as "heck of a job" is something else.


Is there a pattern here? President Bush surely sees, as we all see, that Iraq is in danger of falling into the abyss of sectarian civil war. He must realize that he got bad advice and tried to occupy the country with too few troops, making calamitous mistakes along the way. He surely sees the continuing violence in Afghanistan as the Taliban tries to regroup across the border in Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding. But he doesn't seem to really grapple with the bad news from the multi-front "war on terrorism" he has launched, preferring to acknowledge only the spread of democratic institutions.


Some in the administration are now calling it "the long war," which indicates no end in sight.


Oh, and health authorities agree that it's just a matter of time before the avian flu pandemic reaches U.S. shores. The administration says the government is prepared to provide all necessary help to local officials.


Be very afraid."



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blubirde


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Ugh. The whole Katrina mess makes me so sad. Let's just face it. If a natural disaster comes to our shores, we're screwed. That's all there is to it. I'm sure some of the uber-rich will be able to find a way out of the situation but the masses? We're in it for the duration. The good news is that natural disasters don't happen every day. The bad news is that we're on our own if they do.


I know some people say it's not the federal gov't's fault that things played out the way they did in Katrina. I don't know if that's true or not (although I have my own opinions). What's sad is that I always thought, and call me naive, that the government of the United States of America, supposedly the wealthiest and freest nation in the world, would have my back if I was attacked. (Attacked by thieves, terrorists, nature, whatever.) I also thought that the system, while not perfect (what can be?), was right more often than not. More importantly, I had faith that I had some structure, some semblance of practicality availiable to me in a time of need.


What Katrina has taught me is that I was dead wrong. I know now that I have what I give myself. I thought this country was better than that but I was wrong. And maybe I was wrong in the first place to put so much faith and trust in a bureaucracy, I don't know. All I know is that I don't trust my government to take care of me if something bad happens. Social security for the old and sick? Screw that. I'm hording under the bed mattress because there's no way in hell I'm depending on the government to help me out if something terrible happens in my life. Health insurance? I better pay over half my salary for that because I know there's no way I'm getting in to see a doctor if I get the bird flu unless I'm paying hand over fist. Gas prices? I better start drilling in my own backyard, just in case we run out. And god knows the government won't stop the price gauging that goes on there, especially during a time of need.


So my new motto? I'll look out for me and mine and that's it. I mean, look at my role models, right? 



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laken1


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Aurora wrote:
I'm not trying to start anything or be a bitch but I am so sick and tired of everyone blaming bush for the disaster in LA (not on here but in the media).  Being from LA the levee issues were nothing new.  We talk about them every year before hurricane season and to blame bush and the federal government is absolutely riduculous!!  The levees broke in hurricane camille which was in the late 60s so there have been many people in washington that could have done something since then.  why is it all the sudden bush's fault?  I think its just as much the fault of the government in LA as it is the federal government's fault.  I don't understand the attitude back home of the state can't do anything for itself its all up to the federal government to help us/save us.  Sadly that attitude will never go away and LA will never get better.


I'm with ya, Aurora. I understand the points that the media & that you are making, dc, but seriously! Not one person that knows the levee situation in any way shape are form can say they are surprised that they didn't hold. What surprises me is that anyone would even make that statement to begin with! And all I really want to know is even if the federal or local officials said "the levees won't hold" 4 days ahead of the hurricane, exactly what would they have done about it? It's not like you can fix them. I'm so sick of the finger pointing & lack of decision making STILL six months later. Even the people that want to rebuild can't because no one will make the call that it's ok or it's not ok because of the mold issues. I have countless friends that are in this stage & can you imagine the frustration? SOMEONE MAKE A DECISION ALREADY. There is this big push to rebuild the city & everyone go back to live there but they can't build!

I just can't believe with all the things that need to be done that the citizens there are getting screwed because everyone is STILL playing the blame game. It makes me sick.

I'm like blubirde - I think the thing that is most disturbing is that you think the government will help you in a situation like this & then you find out first hand that you are on your own. How disappointing.

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dc


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laken, I agree that there is "blame" to go around, but that's not really what I am getting at with my concerns.  I am just talking about the problems it points out with our leadership on a larger lavel, beyond Katrina.  While it may not be productive on a local level, in New Orleans, to point fingers right now, on a national level the questions this raises about our leadership and our preparedness for the next disaster or terror attack absolutely must be discussed now. The fact is, there is blame at the highest levels and we should not let them get away with it, even as people locally rebuild and look forward.  


The Washington Post had this editorial on Saturday and it points to both the federal and local culpability.  I think it's spot-on:


"Caught on Tape
Saturday, March 4, 2006; A16
ON THE DAY before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, federal emergency officials warned President Bush that the hurricane could be "the big one," the storm the region had long feared; that the Superdome, the shelter of last resort in New Orleans, was below sea level and might well lose its roof; that medical and mortuary teams might not be prepared; and that the levees might not hold back the floodwaters. Mr. Bush, speaking during a videoconference, a tape of which was obtained by the Associated Press, responded by reassuring state officials that "we are fully prepared."


Without a doubt, the tape provides evidence that the White House received ample warning of the catastrophe. Yet within days of that videoconference, Mr. Bush would excuse the federal government's extraordinarily poor performance by telling an interviewer that "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." Moreover, at the time of the conference the White House had no idea whether federal emergency services were truly prepared. On the tape, the president doesn't ask any questions about preparedness, and there is no evidence in documents since released that he was any more engaged before or after the conference. Had anyone called the Defense Department? Was the National Guard en route? Were local Army bases prepared to help? Were emergency food and water supplies in place? The president, like everyone around him, appears to have assumed that everything would run like clockwork, just as it was supposed to on paper.


Before Louisiana state and city officials get too excited about this video, it's worth noting that similar criticisms could be lodged against them. Another tape recently released to the AP reveals that Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) reassured the president that the levees had held -- three hours after they had broken. New Orleans officials also understood in advance of Katrina the scale of the potential catastrophe -- they had carried out simulations of a levee breach -- but were unable to cope. Even some specific consequences of the hurricane, such as the failure of low-income people to leave the city, had been predicted. Yet little was done to accommodate them, either.


The tape adds to a growing body of evidence that the disaster was a failure of execution, not prediction. That indicates to us that federal and local government employees must spend more time carrying out practice exercises and involve more people in disaster planning. It also should tell the nation something about the value of leadership. The Gulf Coast might have suffered less had the president just asked a few people the right questions."



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