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White House Knew of Levee Failure on Night of Storm
The New York Times ^ | FEB 9, 2006 | ERIC LIPTON

Posted on 02/09/2006 8:34:49 PM PST by blogblogginaway

Among the findings that emerge in the mass of documents and testimony:

¶Federal officials knew long before the storm showed up on the radar that 100,000 people in New Orleans had no way to escape a major hurricane on their own and that the city had finished only 10 percent of a plan for how to evacuate its largely poor, African-American population.

¶Mr. Chertoff failed to name a principal federal official to oversee the response before the hurricane arrived, an omission a top Pentagon official acknowledged to investigators complicated the coordination of the response. His department also did not plan enough to prevent a conflict over which agency should be in charge of law enforcement support. And Mr. Chertoff was either poorly informed about the levee break or did not recognize the significance of the initial report about it, investigators said.

¶The Louisiana transportation secretary, Johnny B. Bradberry, who had legal responsibility for the evacuation of thousands of people in nursing homes and hospitals, admitted bluntly to investigators that "we put no plans in place to do any of this."

¶Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans at first directed his staff to prepare a mandatory evacuation of his city on Saturday, two days before the storm hit, but he testified that he had not done so that day while he and other city officials struggled to decide if they should exempt hospitals and hotels from the order. The mandatory evacuation occurred on Sunday, and the delay exacerbated the difficulty in moving people away from the storm.

¶The New Orleans Police Department unit assigned to the rescue effort, despite many years' worth of flood warnings and requests for money, had just three small boats and no food, water or fuel to supply its emergency workers.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: ericlipton; katrina; leveeplot; mediamalpractice
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To: blogblogginaway
White House Knew of Levee Failure on Night of Storm>/i>

IOW: Bush gave the order. /sarc

61 posted on 02/09/2006 9:14:47 PM PST by Mike Darancette (Condimaniac)
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To: Howlin

Casinos, Graft, Jets, and Trips cost a lot of money! Where did you THINk they were going to get it, Ghost employed Cops???


62 posted on 02/09/2006 9:15:15 PM PST by tcrlaf
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To: Howlin


Of course not! The hearings are to bash Bush and assign blame.


63 posted on 02/09/2006 9:19:51 PM PST by onyx
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To: mumps
Katrina happened during Bush's watch, and with his appointees in place in the government departments with responsibility. That's the reality. That's just the way the political responsibility cookie crumbles. This is as true for the president of the United States as it is for the mayor of Mayberry. Is it always fair? No.

Hate to be the one to tell you this, but the rules are, the first 72 hours of a disaster, the locals are responsible. They are told to have 72 hours worth of supplies, water, ice, medical services etc. available. That's what homeland security money is for. Each state has received it. Each state is supposed to have plans which includes calling out the National Guard to assist if local law enforcement is overwhelmed.

64 posted on 02/09/2006 9:21:58 PM PST by McGavin999 (If Intelligence Agencies can't find leakers, how can we expect them to find terrorists?)
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To: claudiustg

The Insurrection Act


65 posted on 02/09/2006 9:24:26 PM PST by blogblogginaway (..)
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To: Pukin Dog

Well put, PK!


66 posted on 02/09/2006 9:24:35 PM PST by rlmorel ("Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does." Whittaker Chambers)
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To: blogblogginaway

There is so much to say about this article some good some bad. However this is one important thing that is not pointed out as to BUSH. IN the late 90's I had to evacuate from NOLA because the big one was coming. I was in the French Quarter saw a hurricane in the gulf noted it and me and my friends proceeded to party till 3am. The next morning the city was in chaos. Morial had ordered an evacuation of the city. It was madness getting out of their. At the end of the day only 50 percent had left. Louisiana learned from this and thats one reason why 80 percent of the city had evacuated and it was much more smoother this time. The point is this if that hurricane had not changed course at the last moment and hit Mississippi then it would have been much like Katrina. Now would have President Clinton gotten the blame like Bush is getting of course not. The only difference would have been would the death toll in the 90's would have been much higher. The fact that the administration knew there were problems is no different than the Clinton administration. But the NYT doesnt point that out


67 posted on 02/09/2006 9:25:30 PM PST by bayourant
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To: BigSkyFreeper

I hate to have to repeat myself, but right before we lost power from Katrina, CNN showed a restaurant owner who was also the pastry chef and he was passing out slices of cheesecake on Bourbon Street where the natives were all high fiving one another BECAUSE they dodged Katrina!

Moments later, the levess broke. They knew about the levees but did NOT evacuate like they were asked to do by their damn officials: that incompetent governor and clueless mayor.



68 posted on 02/09/2006 9:25:55 PM PST by onyx
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To: frankjr

Note to the infantile Big Media-

When you choose to revisit the dead, buried and re-incarnated story of 2005 concerning the storm that highlighted Blanco and Nagin's severe incomeptance in an election year...(as well as the convoluted non story of Libby)

It is my determination you aren't doing wo well in your attacks on the Patriot Act, NSA taps, Abramhoff and Judiciary. :-)

This is like when you revisit your glory days, as you consider them, involving Watergate, Woodstock and 'Nam. You consider '05 to be a fairytale in which you controlled the world, except it's now 2006 and it's looking increasingly as though you'll have to fight to even gain one or two seats in a year where you are supposed to pick up quite a few on national average.

I smell desperation.


69 posted on 02/09/2006 9:26:07 PM PST by Soul Seeker (Mr. President: It is now time to turn over the money changers' tables.)
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To: McGavin999

The louisiana national guard was called out and did a superb job. The devastation though was over such a wide area. Thats what makes me mad about the blame game. It was a huge disaster and people want to assign blame where in many cases there is no blame to assign


70 posted on 02/09/2006 9:27:43 PM PST by bayourant
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To: blogblogginaway
"White House Knew of Levee Failure on Night of Storm"

Must have been listening to Led Zepplin during the party.

"¶Federal officials knew long before the storm showed up on the radar that 100,000 people in New Orleans had no way to escape a major hurricane on their own and that the city had finished only 10 percent of a plan for how to evacuate its largely poor, African-American population."

Awww. Where was baby doc Nagin and the Blanco? The 10% plan called for the rest of the country to provide deluxe buses. What was wrong with your buses in the lot?

"Mr. Chertoff failed to name a principal federal official to oversee the response before the hurricane arrived"

Mr Chertoff and the rest of those guys were warning the NO and LA for a week before. The feds were ready, NO and LA weren't.

"The New Orleans Police Department unit assigned to the rescue effort, despite many years' worth of flood warnings and requests for money, had just three small boats and no food, water or fuel to supply its emergency workers."

Plenty of scalawags, shoplifters and MIAs though.

71 posted on 02/09/2006 9:29:17 PM PST by spunkets
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To: onyx

well it wasnt exactly moments later. But i see your point. Also it was floodwall on a canal that night that broke not a leveee.


72 posted on 02/09/2006 9:29:28 PM PST by bayourant
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To: blogblogginaway

President Bush should order an audit of all Federal money given to Louisiana to improve the levees around New Orleans over the last 20 years. Find out what happened to the funds.


73 posted on 02/09/2006 9:30:10 PM PST by Chewbacca (Hell knows no fury than fiery habenaro Dorito's eaten before bedtime.)
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To: bayourant

Moments to me --- moments later I lost power. I'm sorry. I wasn't clear.


74 posted on 02/09/2006 9:30:22 PM PST by onyx
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To: blogblogginaway

Heck, I was sitting here a long way from the hurricane, in Tennessee, and I knew a big one was going to hit a town below sea level.


75 posted on 02/09/2006 9:32:37 PM PST by girlangler (I'd rather be fishing)
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To: spunkets

To say that they were telling nola residents to evac a week before is incorrect. I agree with some of the rest you say. However to be fair some things must be considered. Blanco had really just got into office. To be fair one must ask why the Former Gov who was in office for 8 years doesnt receive some blame.


76 posted on 02/09/2006 9:33:10 PM PST by bayourant
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To: Chewbacca

I believe alot of thats being done now in the investigation of what went wrong. However, be prepared to see some suprises. There has been corruption in Louisiana in the past but nothing like talked about here.


77 posted on 02/09/2006 9:35:52 PM PST by bayourant
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To: Soul Seeker

"White House Knew of Levee Failure on Night of Storm"

No way. Just no way.

CNN correctly reported that the US Army fired missiles into the levees, Mayor Nagin is a coordinated leader (not a racist idiot), and the National Guard was ordered to shoot all black people they encounter.

Everyone knows that. Get with the program.

(sarcasm)


78 posted on 02/09/2006 9:35:54 PM PST by Emmet Fitzhume ("Satan and Mohammed: Proud parents of Death, Destruction, and Islam.")
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To: mumps
Look at Florida the past two years... Six hurricanes, some with winds worse than Katrina at landfall. Damage in the multiple millions, probably billions. But yet all you hear about is New Orleans and Katrina. Think about why -- in Florida you had a disaster response infrastructure in place and ready to go, to help the locals get through the first 72 hours, then the Feds give assistance when requested.

In LA, you had neither of these -- the locals were unprepared to take charge for the first few days (indeed, they prohibited the Red Cross from entering the city!), and then refused offers of Federal aid from FEMA until the refugees in the Superdome and convention center had been without water and help, and were in dire need of emergency supplies of water just to survive. So all this and the levee failure was Bush's fault? More lies from the Slimes.
79 posted on 02/09/2006 9:53:08 PM PST by CedarDave ("There is a difference between responsible criticism that aims for success, and defeatism...W - SOTU)
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To: blogblogginaway

Utter lies. City officials were HIDING the truth of non-preparedness from their own emergency management personnel. Anyone who questioned preparedness was cut out of the loop. Money for hurricane preparedness was being diverted. Dig deep enough and the truth will be found.


80 posted on 02/09/2006 10:02:40 PM PST by Kirkwood ("When the s*** hits the fan, there is enough for everyone.")
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