AP: Video Contradicts Bush Katrina Statements

[Arne]

AP: Video Contradicts Bush Katrina Statements

POSTED: 3:24 pm MST March 1, 2006
UPDATED: 6:49 pm MST March 1, 2006

WASHINGTON -- In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President George W. 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 expressed a confidence on Aug. 28 that starkly contrasted with the dire warnings his disaster chief and numerous 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.

White House Downplays Video

The White House and Homeland Security Department urged the public Wednesday not to read too much into the video footage.

"I hope people don't draw conclusions from the president getting a single briefing," presidential spokesman Trent Duffy said, citing a variety of orders and disaster declarations Bush signed before the storm made landfall. "He received multiple briefings from multiple officials, and he was completely engaged at all times."

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said his department would not release the full set of videotaped briefings, saying most transcripts 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 Wednesday afternoon from an AP reporter's camera.

"I have kind a sinking feeling in my gut right now," Nagin said. "I was listening to what people were saying -- they didn't know, so therefore it was an issue of a learning curve. You know, from this tape it looks like everybody was fully aware."

Footage Conflicts With Official Responses

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. He later clarified, saying officials believed, wrongly, after the storm passed that the levees had survived. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility even before the storm - 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.

Brown: Gathering Storm 'A Bad One'

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.

Hurricane Expert Expressed 'Grave Concern'

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 5 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."

[Mavdog]

those dang videos! it's darn difficult to keep up the facade when the evidence is there contradicting it.

the irony is that Brown appears to grasp the scope of the problem far better than those in the White House, yet he is the one who was thrown under the bus by the very same white house.

not a very good first year of the second term....in fact, it's one of the most rapid declines in approval ratings of any two term pres.

[FishForLunch]

Any fool can recoganize if you are constantly bombarded with bad news, gloom and doom you are naturally going to feel bad about the situation around you.

[sixeightmkw]

What was he supposed to do? call for the evacuation of New Orleans? I think they did that. go fix the levees before the hurricane hit? impossible. It is a disater, which means you don't know what is going to happen, and it is very hard to prepare for something like that. Bush made sure that the right departments were in the right place to make decisions. Those departments failed. Not Bush. He is not the one making the vital decisions. It is his job to make sure the people that do make those decisions are where they need to be. It is real easy to blame Bush, but not his fault. Sorry.

[u2sarajevo]

Everyone is to blame in this fiasco. From Bush's sometimes seemingly no-worries "sense" of urgency to Governor Blanco to Mayor Nagin.

From top to bottom.... failure.

[Drbio]

Originally Posted by sixeightmkw

What was he supposed to do? call for the evacuation of New Orleans? I think they did that. go fix the levees before the hurricane hit? impossible. It is a disater, which means you don't know what is going to happen, and it is very hard to prepare for something like that. Bush made sure that the right departments were in the right place to make decisions. Those departments failed. Not Bush. He is not the one making the vital decisions. It is his job to make sure the people that do make those decisions are where they need to be. It is real easy to blame Bush, but not his fault. Sorry.

Good post.

[sixeightmkw]

I mean really, do people think he was sitting there when they told him about this situation saying, " good, lets wipe out New Orleans, let me piss everyone off so they will hate me. Lets forget about it. It doesn't matter, it's just New Orleans." really, come on. But like always, when you can't find someone to blame, hell, just blame the president.

[Mavdog]

you are correct U2.

imo the only "blame" is for the attempts to minimize the problems by the administration. the video shows that the white house was involved in the preparations for post-hurricane relief, so they clearly were aware of the pending disaster.

however, the video/notes of the calls show the post-hurricane statements by the White House and Bush were incorrect at best and deceptive at worst.

just proves the adage "honesty is the best policy".

[u2sarajevo]

2 things... 68 - The President is the highest ranking Government official in this Country. We expect the Government to protect us. I think he really didn't understand the scope of the disaster, to be honest. It seems like he didn't step on the feet of the people he entrusted to handle such things until after he toured the area. I think it was then he realized that the problem was much larger than his entourage were leading him to believe. Brown did become the "scapegoat". He seems really concerned in that video. And maybe, since Bush was privy to the conversations, he assumed that Brown was on top of things and understood the scope of the issues and how to respond correctly.

Mavdog - I don't recall any "minimize"'d problems. It does show involvement, which I would hope would always be the case. Remember this was 19-24 hours prior to landfall. An evacuation had been ordered by the correct government officials(state level). And although Brown stated his fears about the levee's if you think logically about this (without Democratic shades on) no one could have possibly known for certain that what occured would occur.

Honestly... what more could they do in 24 hours to prepare?

And it was post-destruction events that I think the White House failures occured. Pre-disaster, I think you can look no further than local government.

[sixeightmkw]

I agree U2. The local government let down the people of New Orleans. Mayor Nagle is a jackass that just sat there and complained instead of doing something. The Government, I feel, did what they could by getting the coast guard involved with rescues, sending that huge ship out in the bay once this were safe for it to enter to offer aid. FEMA let people down because whats his name had never dealt with anything like that before and was overcome. He just caved under pressure. Remeber also that the neighboring state got hit pretty hard too and they needed help. There is only so much to go around. People and services can't be everywhere at once.

[Mavdog]

Originally Posted by u2sarajevo

Mavdog - I don't recall any "minimize"'d problems. It does show involvement, which I would hope would always be the case. Remember this was 19-24 hours prior to landfall. An evacuation had been ordered by the correct government officials(state level). And although Brown stated his fears about the levee's if you think logically about this (without Democratic shades on) no one could have possibly known for certain that what occured would occur.

Honestly... what more could they do in 24 hours to prepare?

And it was post-destruction events that I think the White House failures occured. Pre-disaster, I think you can look no further than local government.

the comments by Bush were that the situation was under control, and that the government had sufficient supplies to get through the disaster. it wasn't under control, and the supplies were not staged as well as it appears they could have been.

The biggest knock on the White House (imo) is the failure to move the "DOD assets" as they call them in immediately.

[sixeightmkw]

Originally Posted by Mavdog

the comments by Bush were that the situation was under control, and that the government had sufficient supplies to get through the disaster. it wasn't under control, and the supplies were not staged as well as it appears they could have been.

The biggest knock on the White House (imo) is the failure to move the "DOD assets" as they call them in immediately.

We all have 20/20 vision in hindsight. This was a Disaster, something no one could have possibly concieved. Everyone was in Chaos.I feel they did their (the president) best job considering the circumstances. We can always go back and say, "oh, this could have been done better or this or this". The plain and simple point is that with little notice that something like this might occur, or might not occur, bad things happen in disasters, people die, suffering occurs. We have to move forward and get better, not sit and play the blame game.

[FishForLunch]

New Video Shows Blanco Saying Levees Safe BY LARA JAKES JORDAN and MARGARET EBRAHIM, Associated Press Writers



WASHINGTON - In the hectic, confused hours after Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast, Louisiana's governor hesitantly but mistakenly assured the Bush administration that New Orleans' protective levees were intact, according to a new video obtained by The Associated Press showing briefings that day with federal officials.


"We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29, according to the video that was obtained Thursday night. "We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not breached the levee at this time."

In fact, the National Weather Service received a report of a levee breach and issued a flash-flood warning as early as 9:12 a.m. that day, according to the White House's formal recounting of events the day Katrina struck.

The timing of the levees breach has been a key issue in exhaustive reviews of failures to respond to Katrina and highlights miscommunication about the scope of the storm's damage at all levels of government.

The new video, which runs 45 minutes, details uncertainty and despair among state and local emergency response officials as they began chronicling the disaster that swept across 90 square miles in the Gulf Coast.

Blanco is not shown in the video but is heard as a disembodied voice speaking from an emergency operations center in Baton Rouge, La., to 11 people sitting around a table at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington. She sounds uncertain about the reliability of her information and cautioned that the situation "could change."

She reported that floodwaters were rising in parts of the city "where we have waters that are 8 to 10 feet deep, and we have people swimming in there."

"That's got a considerable amount of water itself," the governor said. "That's about all I know right now on the specifics that you haven't heard."

Blanco spokeswoman Denise Bottcher said Thursday that "our people on the ground were telling us that there could be over-topping and breaching, but it was hard to tell" by the noon briefing.

Another official who was heard but not seen on the video was then-FEMA Director Michael Brown, who was also at the federal emergency operations center in Baton Rouge. He implored officials to "push the envelope as far as you can," noting that he had already spoken to President Bush twice that day and described the president as "very, very interested in this situation."

"He's very engaged, and he's asking a lot of really good questions I would expect him to ask," Brown said of Bush. "I say that only because I want everyone to recognize ... how serious the situation remains."

Brown has criticized the White House for miscommunication that led to some delays but said in an interview Thursday that he never directly blamed Bush.

"I think the president was confident in the ability of FEMA to respond to this, and what I should have done was go to them earlier and say, 'Let's not wait to see how it unfolds. Let's bring everything and go overboard.'"

He also said there was confusion among officials over whether levees were breached at the time of the noon video conference call. But he said he was convinced of the breach by 1 p.m.

Delays in confirming the levee breaches held up repair efforts and allowed flooding to worsen. The White House was alerted about breach reports by 6 p.m., but the administration confirmed the damage the next morning.

The video shows weather forecasters predicting the storm's path and also briefly cuts to White House deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin asking Blanco about the status of the levees and the situation at the Superdome in New Orleans.

By that time, an estimated 15,000 evacuees had gathered at the stadium, where food and water was beginning to run out, said Col. Jeff Smith, Louisiana's emergency preparedness deputy director. Smith also reported up to 10 feet of flooding in neighboring St. Bernard Parish and that there were 45 patients on life-support at one area hospital that lost its power.

Still, "the coordination and support we are getting from FEMA has just been outstanding," Smith said.

Mississippi officials were less complimentary, reporting significant damage to hospitals, flooded and collapsed emergency operations centers and people trapped on the roofs or in the attacks who were begging for help.

"It certainly looks like it is a catastrophic event that we all expected," said one Mississippi official, who was not identified. "I could tell you that the preliminary reports coming off of our Gulf Coast are not good, not good at all.

The Homeland Security Department played down the new video. Spokesman Russ Knocke said it "reveals nothing new because the transcript had previously been released."

The new video came to light a day after the AP obtained footage of an Aug. 28 briefing — the day before Katrina hit — that showed officials warning the storm might breach levees, put lives at risk in the Superdome and overwhelm rescuers. Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff were among those on the videotaped call.

Lawmakers from both parties said the pre-Katrina briefing for Bush and top administration officials raised new questions about government response to the storm that flooded New Orleans and killed more than 1,300 people.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said the Aug. 28 video "makes it perfectly clear once again that this disaster was not out of the blue or unforeseeable. It was not only predictable, it was actually predicted. That's what made the failures in response — at the local, state and federal level — all the more outrageous."

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said it "confirms what we have suspected all along," charging that Bush administration officials have "systematically misled the American people."

Reid and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California renewed their calls for an independent commission to investigate the federal response to the hurricane.

The House and Senate have conducted separate investigations of the federal response, and the White House did its own investigation. House Democrats for the most part refused to participate in the House probe, insisting since last fall that an independent commission should be created to handle the probe.

The White House did not immediately respond Thursday to the renewed Democratic calls for an independent investigation.

[dude1394]

Well...the emily letitia of the MSM says...nevermind....

The AP started a firestorm with its report that transcripts from emergency meetings somehow proved George Bush lied when he said that no one imagined the levees around Lake Pontchartrain would be breached in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. After its report got picked up by every news source in the US, and after the discovery that these transcripts and videos never contained any warnings about breaches, the AP has finally decided to actually read the transcript and watch its video:

Clarification: Katrina-Video story

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a March 1 story, The Associated Press reported that federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees in New Orleans, citing confidential video footage of an Aug. 28 briefing among U.S. officials.

The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun. The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking.

The day before the storm hit, Bush was told there were grave concerns that the levees could be overrun. It wasn't until the next morning, as the storm was hitting, that Michael Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Bush had inquired about reports of breaches. Bush did not participate in that briefing.