White House Knew
About Levees Early
By Lara Jakes Jordan
Associated Press Writer
2-10-6
WASHINGTON - Twenty-eight government agencies, from local Louisiana
parishes to the White House, reported that New Orleans levees were
breached Aug. 29, the day Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, documents
released Thursday show.
A timeline of e-mails, situation updates and weather reports, pieced
together by Senate Democrats, indicates the Bush administration knew
as early as 8:30 a.m. EST about levee failures that would ultimately
lead to massive flooding of the city and its surrounding parishes.
Senate Democrats said the documents raise questions about whether the
government moved quickly enough to rescue storm victims once they
realized the levees had broken.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said President Bush and his top
aides were fully aware about the massive flooding - and less concerned
whether it was caused by levee breaches, overtopped levees or failed
pumps, all three of which were being reported at the time.
"We knew there was flooding and that's why the No. 1 effort in those
early hours was on search and rescue, and saving life and limb," Duffy
said.
Shortly after the disaster, Bush said, "I don't think anybody
anticipated the breach of the levees." He later said his comment was
meant to suggest that there had been a false sense of relief that the
levees had held when the storm passed, only to break a few hours
later.
The Bush administration has said it knew definitively early Tuesday,
the day after the storm, that the levees had been breached, based on
an Army Corps of Engineers assessment.
Democrats said the documents showed there was little excuse for the
tardy federal response.
"The first communication came at 8:30 a.m.," said Sen. Joe Lieberman,
D-Conn., top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee. "So it is inexplicable to me how those responsible
for the federal response could have woken up Tuesday morning unaware
of this obviously catastrophic situation."
The first internal White House communication about levee failures came
at 11:13 a.m. on Aug. 29 in a "Katrina Spot Report" by the White House
Homeland Security Council.
"Flooding is significant throughout the region and a levee in New
Orleans has reportedly been breached sending 6-8 feet of water
throughout the 9th ward area of the city," the internal report said.
The documents were released on the eve of Senate testimony by former
Federal Emergency Management Agency Michael Brown, who is widely
considered the public face of the government's sluggish response to
Katrina.
Brown, now a private citizen, has said his Katrina-related
communications with Bush and other top White House officials no longer
fall under executive confidentiality protections - a possible signal
that his testimony will assign blame elsewhere.
Brown quit FEMA on Sept. 12 after he was relived of his onsite command
in the Gulf Coast, and left the federal payroll Nov. 2. He testified
in front of a House investigation panel in September.
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