Posted on 09/22/2005 7:29:01 PM PDT by Cautor
Officials with the National Weather Service told House lawmakers Thursday they did everything within their power to inform federal, state and local authorities of the severity of Hurricane Katrina in the days before the storm hit, including issuing a chilling warning and making unprecedented telephone calls to the governors of Louisiana and Mississippi and the mayor of New Orleans.
By Aug. 26 at 10 p.m. Central Daylight Time, the Weather Service had determined the hurricane would be a Category 4 when it made landfall, and that it was headed to southeast Louisiana and New Orleans. The forecast turned out to be startlingly accurate and beat even the agency's own projection goals.
[snip] By 10 p.m. on Aug. 26, FEMA and state officials were told the hurricane was coming toward Mississippi and Louisiana, including New Orleans, Mayfield said. Between 8:30 and 9 the following evening, Mayfield called the governors of those states and the mayor of New Orleans, to personally tell them of the severity of the storm. Mayfield said he had only called a governor once before, and that was for Hurricane Lili in 2002.
Mayfield said he did not recall telling the governors or mayor that they should order evacuations, adding it was not his job to do so.
(Excerpt) Read more at govexec.com ...
C-Y-A all of the way!
I knew where the hurricane was heading days before it hit NO. I think this story is an accurate description of events. Blanco and Nagin had the info and they failed to act on it.
I think they did too. They were talking constantly about how bad this Katrina was going to be. It was the people themselves plus the Mayor and the Gov that didn't heed the warnings.
I sure heard enough of them clear in California. There is no way people didn't know to get out.
I'll never forget their warning when Katrina reached a Category 5. The picture it painted was more like reading a plot from a novel than anything that could possibly happen in reality. When nature turns on its' full, destructive force, there is nothing man can do but turn and run. If possible.
It's tough to reason with people who are stuck on stupid.
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