New Docs Show Gov't Forewarned on Katrina

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-katrina-levees,0,3658995.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

The Homeland Security Department was warned a day before Hurricane Katrina hit that the storm's surge could breach levees and leave New Orleans flooded for weeks or months, documents released Monday show.

An Aug. 28 report by the department's National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center concluded that a Category 4 or 5 hurricane would cause severe damage in the city, including power outages and a direct economic hit of up to $10 billion for the first week.

"Overall, the impacts described herein are conservative," stated the report, which was sent to Homeland Security's office for infrastructure protection.

"Any storm rated Category 4 or greater ... will likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching, leaving the New Orleans metro area submerged for weeks or months," said the report, which was released by a Senate panel examining the government's breakdown in responding to Katrina.

The documents are the latest indication that the federal government knew beforehand of the catastrophic damage that a storm of Katrina's magnitude could cause.

[madaboutharry]

1. Hell, everyone knows that these warnings

about Hurricane Katrina were "HISTORICAL."

This administration is not only criminal and corrupt, it is simply downright incompetent.

[SpiralHawk]

2. A heckuva failure by Bush & Cronies. As usual.

they screw up -- or corrupt -- everything they touch

[LiberalEsto]

3. Homeland Security was too busy spying

on little old Quaker ladies
to pay any attention to the hurricane warning.

[Surya Gayatri]

23. And skimming off the budget

for the good ol' Bush gang--handing out no-bid contracts to the cronies. SG

[tocqueville]

4. just saw a debate about global climate on French TV...

discussing the cold wave in Europe and its geopolitics. One top meteorologist warned that ocean temperatures are already "predicting" that the next hurricane season will as bad (or even worse) than the last one... I hope he is wrong...

[uppityperson]

5. Interesting now that there is debate that it may have been a 3 when it hit

Oh, that means it really wasn't that bad? :shrug:

[pitohui]

28. it was a 3 when it hit new orleans, it was a 4 when it made landfall

it was a 4 at buras, louisiana, that place was scrubbed off the map, it's unbelievable

it was a 3 when it hit new orleans, not really any serious debate abt it, we are well inland

the floodwalls were only built to withstand a fast-moving 3, not a slow-moving 3, or at least that is the excuse of the week, sigh

regular levees -- the river levees which held and protected french quarter and uptown from flooding -- might even withstand a 4 or 5

the floodwalls must not be rebuilt, we need to rebuild w. the traditional regular levees everywhere of that type proven to protect, yes, that means some homes and streets will have to be taken since better levees require a bigger footprint, and i find i don't want to hear any more shit abt it, i had no business living on a street by the london ave. floodwall and I know a couple who are dead now because they lived there, it is simply unsafe and people should not be permitted to return to places that can't be made safe for human habitation, it's unfair to them and it's unfair to their families and those they leave behind

compensate people well who can't return to the same spot but don't allow them to play in traffic again, this atlantic hurricane cycle could last another 50 years supposedly and it will certainly last another 10 years, 2006 is predicted to be about the same as 2005, we are not gonna get thru this thing doing the same shit that didn't work the first time!

but in answer to yr question, there is no doubt that katrina was a 3 at new orleans, the debate is only whether it was a 3 or a 4 on the coast, it seems obvious to me that it was a 4 but it takes a long time when instruments are destroyed to get a full scientific proof

did you know that andrew was not accepted as cat 5 until 10 full years after landfall?

[uppityperson]

38. sorry, I meant 3 at New Orleans, yes it hit the coast much harder

:blush: sorry. I am just ironically amused that now they are saying that it wasn't that bad when it hit NO, but hey guys, the damage and aftermath are the same.

[intheflow]

37. I don't know if I buy that.

I'm working hurricane relief in Mississippi. I grew up in Massachusetts and we had a few 3's hit, but they were nothing like the devastation down here.

Personally, I think the down-grading was somehow influenced by the insurance companies. I'm not sure what their motivation would be, unless it was to get higher premiums for lower cat storms when the coast is rebuilt.

That's my :tinfoilhat: d'jour.

[uppityperson]

39. Where are you?

Sorry, I meant only about NO, that now "they" are saying that it was only a 3 so it wasn't really that bad, but I know it was a lot more and a whole hell of a lot of destruction was done. What, with whom and where are you working?

[intheflow]

41. I'm in Biloxi.

Working with two groups, Hands On USA and the Mississippi Coast Interfaith Disaster Task Force. Plenty of work to go around!

[uppityperson]

49. Good job and there is plenty.

You mean you haven't cleaned it all up yet? But Mardi Gras is happening this yr so everything must be fine. Thanks for helping. There is a huge amount of work and we must all work together since we are on our own (no gvt cavalry coming to help)

[Judi Lynn]

6. Kick!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[leesa]

7. A day before??? The computer models showed them 2 years before

exactly what would happen.

[pitohui]

29. yes, but that's not really to the point

we can't afford to have national guard troops and fema emergency supplies, medics, etc. located in every city 2 years ahead of a possible event

when manhattan is hit by a cat 2, it will make katrina look like a walk in the park, and one day it will happen, but we can't do much abt it now, because it might not happen for 50 years or 100 years

once you get a hurricane that is actually on track for a major city, this is when you need to be moving supplies, troops, etc. to that city

i don't blame anybody for not having nat'l guard here 2 years in advance

what i blame them for is not having nat'l guard here 2 days in advance which should be standard practice and was standard practice during the clinton era

[SoCalDem]

8. No documents needed.. It was on TV 24-7 for DAYS

brownie talked on TV BEFORE katrina
Bush talked on tv BEFORE katrina
Skeletor talked on TV BEFORE katrina

EVERYONE KNEW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN.. It was NOT a surprise..

[LizW]

13. It was, wasn't it?

We are truly living in bizarro world.

EVERYONE who was conscious knew that there was a danger of the levees being breached or breaking entirely. And everyone knew that if that happened, NO would be sitting is a bowl of water up to the rooftops.

It was discussed on cable news! The disastrous effects of a direct hurricane hit on NO were known for YEARS, and not just by "experts", but by average people, at least down in the southeast in hurricane country.

[DocSavage]

33. With in

the first week of living in New Orleans, we were told by numerous people that in the event of a hurricaine, get out! The leveys will breach and the city will flood. During one very wet rain cycle, 3-4 days of steady rain, the pumps were overwhelmed and a lot of the city flooded.

We were told when looking to buy a house, look in the nooks and crannies of the downstairs to see if you could find water marks. The whole area floods during bad rain, we knew what would happen during a hurricaine.

[HuffleClaw]

9. they still are covering up something like 3000 missing people

from that tragedy. dead? moved? who knows? it sure isn't 'news'. yet more evidence that only some people count to this administration. and the rape of new orleans is underway in the form of a land grab. but that too isn't 'news'.

[oc2002]

20. what is 'news' will not be covered, unless it is 'infotainment'

besides,, why bother people with facts?

[OKNancy]

10. kick

[Tin Man]

11. WP - White House Got Early Warning on Katrina

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 24, 2006; Page A02

In the 48 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, the White House received detailed warnings about the storm's likely impact, including eerily prescient predictions of breached levees, massive flooding, and major losses of life and property, documents show.

A 41-page assessment by the Department of Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC), was delivered by e-mail to the White House's "situation room," the nerve center where crises are handled, at 1:47 a.m. on Aug. 29, the day the storm hit, according to an e-mail cover sheet accompanying the document.

The NISAC paper warned that a storm of Katrina's size would "likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching" and specifically noted the potential for levee failures along Lake Pontchartrain. It predicted economic losses in the tens of billions of dollars, including damage to public utilities and industry that would take years to fully repair. Initial response and rescue operations would be hampered by disruption of telecommunications networks and the loss of power to fire, police and emergency workers, it said.

In a second document, also obtained by The Washington Post, a computer slide presentation by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, prepared for a 9 a.m. meeting on Aug. 27, two days before Katrina made landfall, compared Katrina's likely impact to that of "Hurricane Pam," a fictional Category 3 storm used in a series of FEMA disaster-preparedness exercises simulating the effects of a major hurricane striking New Orleans. But Katrina, the report warned, could be worse.

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/23/AR2006012301711.html

[shawn703]

12. Move along

Nothing to see here...

[Auntie Bush]

31. That's just what he did! He declared NO a disaster area and

then went off to eat cake with McCain and do a little golfing. He moved along alright. He knew very well what would happen...now he claims ignorance. Well he's right on that point!

I think he LIHOP so he could get the blacks out of NO and his rich buddies could buy up all that land for cheap. It was a god send for him and his crowd...just like 9/11. He's one F***** up human (?) BEING!!!!!

[oc2002]

19. they also got a early warning before 9/11, that was ignored too...

because they are incompetent bunch of corporate whores in the WH.

[tanyev]

14. Hurricane Katrina determined to strike in US...

Got exactly the same reaction as the Bin Laden warning: *yawn*

[LeftHander]

15. They had plenty of time to do what they do best...

Bush vacationed and Rove got those staged photo ops planned.



That is all they did. Bush relied on Brownie and went to his scheduled photo ops thinking everything was going well.

What a jackass.

[uppityperson]

40. Isn't this the "go to the salvation army"

The one where he kept telling the young women to go get help from the Salvation Army, only to need to be told over and over and over that the SA was washed away, that there was no SA, but there would be a SA van delivering stuff sometime? How could he be there, see this, and still not get it? How how how? rhetorical question.

[sabra]

16. kick

:kick:

[ima_sinnic]

17. & yesterday * was STILL blathering about how he's there to

"protect" the citizens. Is there ANYone who buys that? Even the most devout freeper must be able to put 2 and 2 together and conclude, after seeing the Katrina debacle, that that "protection" is scant to nonexistent.

[Roland99]

18. "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."...so was Chertoff.

Fuckers LET people die!

[Surya Gayatri]

21. But, but...nobody could have

anticipated that the levees would be breeched! Unless my memory fails me, i seem to recall somebody using that justification? Or was that a daydream?

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

22. PDB: Mother Nature Determined to Strike in US

[kcass1954]

24. Solution: Declare a "Global War on the Weather".

We can't win that one either.

[connecticut yankee]

25. Rush Limbaugh

is presently on the air, ridiculing the report.

"Katrina was Bush's fault, folks!"

Putz!

[mark11727]

36. That dumbass should know the difference...

...between preventing an onrushing hurricane (which of course, nobody can), and being prepared for one (which * should've been)!

[ClintonTyree]

26. Hey, don't "play the blame game".......

if you criticize the bush administration, the terrorists have won!

How can the Democrats even THINK that the bush administration dropped the ball on Katrina? They'd better watch what they say! :sarcasm: (as if the emoticon is needed)

This administration has been nothing but one catastrophe after another. Can we end our national nightmare soon. Please? :banghead:

[pitohui]

27. "bush knew"

hey with 9-11 he was told on aug. 6 that the attacks were coming, more than a month's warning

he chose to read the goat story and eat the cake

hamlet looks like a figure of decisiveness and decision compared to bush

[demo dutch]

30. Everyone knew for years!! except the Feds

[lies and propaganda]

32. yep. And a Dem gov is going down in flames for it.

Im really afraid that my homestate is about to go redder than ever imagined. The bullshit that my friends and family belive is insane, you would do think that Blanco and Nagin said 'Fuck em" and left em stranded for a week.


pos repugs.

[UpInArms]

34. warnings "began a year before Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coas

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_Katrina_Levees.html

WASHINGTON -- Senators lambasted the Bush administration on Tuesday for failing to heed devastating predictions from a hurricane preparedness test that began a year before Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast.

The top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee also accused the White House of trying to block or delay the panel's inquiry into the government's sluggish response to Katrina.

The preparedness exercise that began in July 2004, dubbed Hurricane Pam, warned that a Category 3 storm would overwhelm the New Orleans area with flood waters, killing up to 60,000 people and destroying buildings and roads. State and federal officials were concluding Pam's findings when Katrina, an actual Category 4 storm, roared ashore on Aug. 29.

"As a dry run for the real thing, Pam should have been a wake-up call that could not be ignored," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate committee's examination of Pam's findings at a Tuesday hearing. "Instead, it is apparent that a more appropriate name for Pam should have been 'Cassandra' - the mythical prophet who warned of disasters but whom no one believed."

...more...

[car]

35. Surprise Surprise

It was no surpise that there would be huge damage. It was on the news before it hit.

[neuvocat]

42. I just saw this on NBC.

Its got legs.

[Uncle Joe]

48. With this corrupt incompetent administration,

it should be a centipede.

[dsharp88]

43. Can't be. Bush ignored the warning???

Next thing you'll be telling me is that he ignored warnings about Osama bin Laden looking for federal targets to attack in the USA.

Don in New Orleans

[bleedingheart]

44. Double fucking duh!

For crying out loud the entire nation was aware that there was a big possibility that Katrina was going to submerge New Orleans under storm surges and flooding...

[TankLV]

45. Another lie exposed.

We knew this fact when it occured.

Will the whore media blast this, let alone mention it?

[benfranklin1776]

46. How do you know Junior is lying

Answer: His lips are moving. This is the same administration that says: "trust us" we are only spying on bad people, we are "vigorously" enforcing mine safety laws, we "care" about civil rights, we "reformed" student aid not cut it etc." This is the most mendacious bunch of lying weasels to ever occupy the executive branch in this nation's history. They do the exact reverse of what they say publicly. Indeed that is a good barometer of where the truth lies, in diametric opposition to their hollow snake oil sales pitches.

[JWS]

47. Guess he was waiting for God to warn him. n/t