WSJ: New Orleans Nat Weather Svc reported 8:14am that LEVEE BROKE

[StefanX]

Wall Street Journal: 'The New Orleans office of the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning at 8:14 a.m. Monday, saying "a levee breach occurred along the industrial canal at Tennessee Street. 3 to 8 feet of water is expected due to the breach." The media largely ignored it. The NWS's source of information was ham-radio transmissions by the Orleans Levee Board, a city-state agency. The 8:14 warning was the last one the local office issued before its communications were cut off.'

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_09_11_atrios_archive.html#112655074939260870

So... the government's own National Weather Service reports MONDAY MORNING that New Orleans was flooding -- and then they go off the air.

But Bush heard "on the airways" that New Orleans had "dodged a bullet", so he ignores Gov. Blanco's call for help and goes to be Monday night.

[malaise]

1. There was no power in NOLA

from the night before. What could their media have done?

[Jacobin]

2. The national media didn't report it. That i think is the point of the

post.

I know for damn sure I didn't hear it reported

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. And would we expect bush and his administration

to actually READ a newspaper or watch the news or read the weather alerts?

[ShockediSay]

4. According to one report * was in his Coranado hotel Mon night

According to one report * was in his Coranado hotel Mon night at a Republican elite fundraiser. I've yet to find credible verification for this report.

But yes, the levee broke Monday morning:

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/t-p/katrina.ssf?/hurricane/katrina/stories/083005catastrophic.html

And yes, * was out of touch with reality (for a change). As recently as yesterday he was broadcast as saying the levee broke Tuesday.

[SoCalDem]

5. Wasn't it reported HERE in the wee hours ..I remember

watching WWL or WLL or some local station that was playing the nurse's frantic phone call reporting white caps on Canal street.. I started the thread..

[StefanX]

6. Let me clarify the meaning of this news item as I see it

The government's OWN weather service had ALREADY REPORTED by early Monday morning that a levee had been broken.

Whether or not this was carried by WaPo or CNN is irrelevant -- it should have been picked up by FEMA and ACTED ON. Instead, it was IGNORED by the entire federal Executive Branch.

This shows that Bush's Executive Branch was IGNORING news about Katrina -- news that they had as of Monday morning.

They went for days saying they "never imagined" the levees would break - when they had reports for months BEFORE Katrina that this was a possibility - and they had a report on Monday Aug 29 at 8:14am that this was a FACT.

Yet they ignored this fact, and now they're trying to lie about this.

I want to know why FEMA and Bush ignore reports from the National Weather Service.

[jobycom]

7. He also saw the first plane hit the tower on 9-11 on a television in the

school, even though there were no videos of the plane hitting the tower until later that afternoon.

There's no point in believing anything Bush says. Al Gore would have been sitting at his desk with orders to the NWS, the National Gaurd, FEMA and whatever version of the Homeland Security department he had installed, ordering constant updates as soon as anyone heard anything. He'd have had the Army Corp of Engineers stationed in Baton Rouge just waiting for the order to fix whatever levee break occured, since they had been warning of possible levee failures for three days. The equipment and personnel and the National Guard would have been on the ground in New Orleans before the hurricane winds had faded.

That's what leaders do. It's been five years since we've seen one--well, except on 9-11 when Guiliani took over. Bush should not be forgiven just because he was ignorant of the situation, even if he was ignorant of the situation. It's his job to know, and failure to know is a failure, not an excuse for later failures.

[shraby]

8. A nurse called Aaron Brown on his show

at night and told him the water at her hospital was rising and inch every 5 minutes. Don't remember which night, but he got someone to check the story out. She was worried because their generators were on the second floor and was afraid it might get to them.