US government knew of dire risks posed by Katrina: FEMA document

[tuvor]

(Sorry if this has already been posted. I haven't seen it on DU today.)

WASHINGTON (AFP) - One million evacuees, and up to 350,000 left homeless: that would be the results of a hurricane hitting New Orleans, according to a year-old document from the US
Federal Emergency Management Agency made public.

The government document appears to contradict claims by top US officials that nobody had anticipated the outcome of a powerful hurricane hitting Louisiana as Hurricane Katrina did last week.

The 2004 FEMA document was made public by opposition Democrats in the US House of Representatives.

It explains that a hurricane of between category three and five in strength (on the Saffir-Simspon scale) hitting the southern state of Louisiana would create "a catastrophe with which the state would not be able to cope without massive help from neighboring states and the federal government."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usweatherfemadocument