Transcripts:

Bush Was Told of Levees' Possible Failure
Before Katrina 

SETH BORENSTEIN AND WILLIAM DOUGLAS / Knight Ridder 1mar2006

[AP article below | More on Bush]

WASHINGTON — President Bush was warned about Hurricane Katrina's devastating impact on New Orleans' levees before the storm hit, according to transcripts of emergency briefings that Bush received. The transcripts appear to contradict his assertions that no one anticipated the failure of levees that flooded the city.

Transcripts of the briefings, first reported by The Associated Press and also obtained by Knight Ridder, show that Bush was told in stark detail about Katrina's potential deadly impact and that he heard a top hurricane expert express "grave concerns" about the ability of the levees to withstand what turned out to be a catastrophic hurricane. They also show that Bush asked no questions.

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown said that before the storm slammed into the Gulf Coast, he and the nation's top hurricane scientist did all they could to convince Bush, the White House staff and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that the big one was about to happen.

"I don't know how he (Bush) couldn't understand how bad it was or bad it could be," Brown said in an interview with Knight Ridder. National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield worried about breached levees, and Brown talked about how the Superdome, which was destined to be the home for thousands of evacuees, was below sea level and at risk of flooding. He also talked about trouble evacuating prisons and hospitals - all before Katrina hit.

Bush, in post-hurricane comments, insisted that his administration had no warning that the levees were in danger.

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees," Bush said on Sept. 1. "They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached. And, as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded."

The revelation that Bush was warned in advance about Katrina's destructive power is another blow to an administration whose integrity and competence has come under fire for its response to the hurricane, the ill-fated Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination, its handling of a transaction that would let a United Arab Emirates company manage cargo terminals at six major U.S. ports, and its conduct of the war in Iraq.

"It's devastating that the president would ask no questions," said David Gergen, a former adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton who's now a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "If he sat there mum in a full briefing ... that will only confirm the suspicions of a lot of opponents."

White House officials said Wednesday night that the transcripts and video obtained by AP show only a few moments in time and don't reflect that Bush was engaged before, during and after the hurricane hit.

"He issued emergency disaster declarations ahead of the storm. He told people in the region to listen to the warnings of state and local officials," said Blair Jones, a White House spokesman. "He received multiple briefings from multiple officials. ... He was engaged."

Republicans close to the administration said they feared that the video and transcripts will add another log to an already blazing political fire that could jeopardize the party's control of Congress in the November midterm elections.

Brown said he couldn't understand how the president and the White House staff could say in the days following Katrina that no one knew how bad it would be when they were briefed extensively. Brown said he thinks that the president misspoke.

"How could anyone be not concerned" beforehand, Brown asked. "Maybe I could have screamed at the president or screamed at Chertoff, but I didn't have time for that."

Brown said he told the White House and Chertoff in an early afternoon briefing on Aug. 29, the day Katrina hit, that there was massive flooding. Chertoff's deputies testified before a Senate committee last month that they went home that Monday thinking New Orleans was still dry.

Part of the problem, Brown said, was that he was surrounded by disaster and reports of mayhem while in Baton Rouge, La., and he couldn't conceive that others didn't comprehend the magnitude of the disaster.

On Aug. 30, when he told Chertoff that 90 percent of New Orleans was flooded, it sunk in to the president, Brown said. "I can see he's visibly taken aback by that," Brown said, recalling the president's demeanor as "one of dismay - he was very upset by what I described."

During the briefings before and after Katrina, Bush and the White House seemed to understand the severity of the catastrophe, Brown said. "In my conversations with the president ... he (Bush) knew what was going on. The president is a former governor; he's dealt with hurricanes," Brown said.

Bush's questions in post-Katrina briefings were specifically about levees and hospitals and showed a knowledge of details, Brown said.

In a conference call before Katrina hit, as Brown and Mayfield were warning of doom and gloom, Bush didn't ask any questions, which Brown described as normal. Instead, the president gave what Brown called a "pep talk" to make sure that governors and department agencies were ready and had what they needed, which Brown said was typical for pre-disaster conference calls.

Brown said what was disturbing about the pre-disaster conference call was Chertoff.

According to the 428-page National Response Plan, Chertoff is in charge of federal response, but he asked only about whether Defense Department assets are available and whether anyone had dealt with the Pentagon.

Brown said he was surprised by the questions because it showed how out of touch Chertoff was. Defense officials were at the table beside FEMA and always had been.

Spokesmen for Chertoff and FEMA couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday night.

source: http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/nation/13994495.htm 1mar2006

Video Shows Bush, Chertoff Clearly Warned Before Katrina Struck

The footage, along with transcripts of briefings, show federal officials
anticipated problems but were too slow to deal with the disaster.

MARGARET EBRAHIM & JOHN SOLOMON / AP 1mar2006

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 any questions during the final briefing Aug. 28, the day before Katrina struck, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "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 footage — along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press — shows that though federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize that they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

Linked by secure video, Bush expressed a confidence on Aug. 28 that contrasted with the dire warnings his disaster chief and numerous federal, state and local officials voiced during the four days before the storm.

In the briefing, the National Hurricane Center's Max Mayfield said storm models predicted minimal flooding inside New Orleans during the hurricane, but he expressed a "grave concern" that winds and storm surges later could cause the levees at Lake Pontchartrain to be overrun.

Then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown also told Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared that 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 struck.

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

"I hope people don't draw conclusions from the president getting a single briefing," said Bush spokesman Trent Duffy, citing orders and disaster declarations Bush signed before the storm struck. "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 taped briefings, saying most transcripts — though not the tapes — 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."

Some of the footage and transcripts from briefings Aug. 25 to 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 that federal and local officials discussed threats clearly, reviewed plans and understood Katrina would wreak devastation of historic proportions.

•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.

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

"I talked to the president twice today, once in Crawford and then again on Air Force One," the transcripts quote Brown as saying. "He's obviously watching the television a lot, and he had some questions about the (Superdome); 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.

Video footage of that briefing shows an intense Brown at the government's disaster operation center, calling the storm "a bad one, a big one" and imploring colleagues to muster regional and national resources and do whatever was necessary to help victims.

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

source: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/03/2katrina.html 1mar2006