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Sorry if this is a dupe. Warning, it's long. For Immediate Release September 5, 2005 Contact: Karen Finney (202) 863-8148 ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN: EXCUSING THE INEXCUSABLE In the wake of the worst natural catastrophe to ever hit the United States, the Bush Administration has proven completely unprepared for the large-scale disaster that Katrina has become. The President claims he is satisfied with the response, but FEMA Director Michael Brown and DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose agencies were supposed to have been preparing for large-scale domestic emergencies for the last four years, are now denying that they could have done more to respond to the tragedies in the hurricane's aftermath. They claim that there was no way to prepare, but the Administration was warned repeatedly over the past four years about New Orleans' vulnerability to a Category Four or Five storm. Now, they're playing politics, blaming the victims of the storm and the local officials that struggled through the storm, rather than fulfilling their responsibilities to the Americans devastated by this crisis. The President can't have it both ways. He can't be satisfied with the response but unhappy with the results. The American people deserve accountability in their federal government. BROWN AND CHERTOFF: SPIN DIRECTLY CONTRADICTING THE FACTS BUSH ADMINISTRATION CLAIMS THAT NO ONE ASKED FOR HELP FEMA Director Brown Told CNN He Didn't Know About The Problems at the Convention Center Until Thursday, 9/1. Brown told CNN "I think it was yesterday (Thursday) morning when we first found out about it. We were just as surprised as everyone else and we didn't know that the city had used that as a staging area"
Chertoff Says State Responsible For National Guard Response. Chertoff
told CNN that "he traditional model for recovery and -- response and
recovery involves having the federal government come into support the
first responders, who are the first on the ground, our constitutional
system really places the primary authority in each state with the
governor."
BUT...
WEDNESDAY: CNN Had Been Reporting On The Convention Center Since
Wednesday. Soledad O'Brien asked Brown how it was possible that CNN had
better information than FEMA. CNN had interviewed a Lt. Brian Wininger
from the New Orleans police department on Wednesday who said they were
encouraging people to get to the convention center. And CNN had live
pictures from the convention center as early as 8am Thursday morning.
Brown responded only that "Well, we're busy doing life saving and life
rescue efforts, we're relying on the state to give us this kind of
information."
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY: Republican Lawmaker Spent 48 Hours Trying To
Make White House Understand. Said Federal Response Lacking. "Rep.
Charles W. Boustany Jr., (R-La.), said he spent the past 48 hours
urging the Bush Administration to send
help. "I started making calls and trying to impress upon the White House
and others that something needed to be done," he said. "The state
resources were being overwhelmed, and we needed direct federal
assistance, command and control, and security -- all three of which are
lacking."
THURSDAY: New Orleans Mayor Sent Out Desperate SOS For Help Thursday.
"New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin sent out a frustrated plea for help
yesterday as thousands of people remained marooned at the city's
Convention Center in the heat and filth, with as many as seven corpses
nearby. "This is a desperate SOS. Right now we are out of resources at
the Convention Center and don't anticipate enough buses. Currently the
Convention Center is unsanitary and unsafe and we are running out of
supplies for 15,000 to 25,000 people," Nagin said in a statement read by
CNN.
THEY CLAIM THEY COULDN'T HAVE KNOWN THE STORM'S INTENSITY
Chertoff: Didn't Know The Storm Would Be So Big. "It wasn't until
comparatively late, shortly before, day, day and a half before landfall
that it became clear this was going to be a Category 4, 5 heading for
the New Orleans area," said Chertoff. But, the national hurricane center
was warning of Katrina's growing danger four days before landfall."9/4/05]
Chertoff: No Amount Of Planning Could Have Prepared Them. "So no matter
what the planning was in advance, we were presented with an
unprecedented situation."
Brown: No One Knew The Storm Was So Strong. "I must say, this storm is
much, much bigger than anyone expected."
BUT...
Impending Disaster Was Predicted In 2002. "The tragedy that destroyed a
vibrant metropolitan area that was home to 1.4 million people and the
city proper that was a national cultural treasure was not simply
imagined but foreseen with a prescience that now seems eerily precise.
Three years ago, New Orleans' leading local newspaper, The
Times-Picayune, reported that the very existence of the Big Easy was at
risk and hundreds of thousands of lives imperiled by exactly the
sequence of events that occurred this week." 9/2/05]
Army Corps Warned Of A Levee Breach In 2004. In 2004 Corps' project
manager Al Naomi noted, "When levees are below grade, as ours are in
many spots right now, they're more vulnerable to waves pouring over them
and degrading them. We're not below storm-surge elevation yet, but we
will be if we stop raising our levees as they subside. Times-Picayune, 6/8/04]
FEMA Director Brown Contradicted His Later Statements -- Warned Katrina
Would Be A Category Four On Friday. FEMA Director Michael Brown
discussed the storm's power and direction on the Friday before the storm
hit on Monday, saying "The hurricane center at its 5:00 forecast says it
could be a category 4 by the end of the weekend. Tonight's Friday. All
of those people living all the way from Louisiana over to the Florida
panhandle need to think now about getting ready for what could be a very
major storm.
CLAIM THEY COULDN'T HAVE KNOWN THE LEVEES WOULD BREAK
Bush Said Levee Breach Not Anticipated. "I don't think anybody
anticipated the breach of the levees." 9/1/05]
Chertoff Echoes Bush, Claims Levee Breaks Were Unexpected. "Chertoff
repeatedly talks about the hurricane and the break of the levees in New
Orleans as if they are separate events, another unpredictable one-two
punch. "A devastating hurricane followed by a second devastating flood.
Flooding, is, of course an expected result of any hurricane." 9/4/05]
Chertoff Says Levee Was Surprise And Once Again Blames People For Not
Leaving. "I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw
headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged the Bullet,'"I think that second
catastrophe really caught everybody by surprise. In fact, I think that's
one of the reasons people didn't continue to leave after the hurricane
had passed initially."
BUT...
New Orleans Paper Warned Of Devastating Levee Breach In 2002. After
Hurricane Georges narrowly missed New Orleans, the Times-Picayune
reported: "A stronger storm on a slightly different course -- such as
the path Georges was on just 16 hours before landfall -- could have
realized emergency officials' worst-case scenario: hundreds of billions
of gallons of lake water pouring over the levees into an area averaging
5 feet below sea level with no natural means of drainage. That would
turn the city and the east bank of Jefferson Parish into a lake as much
as 30 feet deep, fouled with chemicals and waste from ruined septic
systems, businesses and homes. Such a flood could trap hundreds of
thousands of people in buildings and in vehicles. At the same time, high
winds and tornadoes would tear at everything left standing. Between
25,000 and 100,000 people would die. Hundreds of thousands would be left
homeless, and it would take months to dry out the area and begin to make
it livable.
But there wouldn't be much for residents to come home to." Orleans Times-Picayune, 6/24/02]
Army Corps Warned Of A Levee Breach In 2004. In 2004 Corps' project
manager Al Naomi noted, "When levees are below grade, as ours are in
many spots right now, they're more vulnerable to waves pouring over them
and degrading them. We're not below storm-surge elevation yet, but we
will be if we stop raising our levees as they subside." Times-Picayune, 6/8/04]
FEMA Knew The Levees Might Be Overrun. "Chertoff admits FEMA knew the
levees around New Orleans might be overrun by a Category 4
hurricane" FEMA conducted a five-day drill last year to consider a
big hurricane hitting New Orleans. They knew the levees were built to
withstand only a Category 3 storm, and that floodwater flowing over a
levee is a predictable cause of a collapse. For many years, many
researchers, weather experts and journalists have written in great
detail about what would happen if a major hurricane hit New Orleans.
Their predictions were widely known and now have proven to be right."
BROWN AND CHERTOFF FAILED TO LIVE UP TO THEIR RESPONSIBILITY
Lack of Immediate Federal Help Incomprehensible. "Martha A. Madden,
former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality,
said she believes a critical systemic breakdown occurred the moment the
levee broke. She said contingency plans have been in place for decades
but were either ignored or improperly executed. Madden, now a national
security and environmental consultant, said the lack of immediate
federal help, specifically in the form of military assistance, was
'incomprehensible.' "How many people are going to die, per hour, before
you get 40,000 troops in there?" Madden asked yesterday. "I think it has
cost lives. . . . They can go into Iraq and do this and do that, but
they can't drop some food on Canal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana,
right now? It's just mind-boggling." added]
New Orleans Mayor Fumes Over Bush's Response. "A day before President
Bush headed to the hurricane-ravaged South, Mayor Ray Nagin lashed out
at federal officials, telling a local radio station 'they don't have a
clue what's going on down here.' Nagin's interview Thursday night on WWL
radio came as President Bush planned to visit Gulf Coast communities...
"They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over
with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of goddamn -- excuse my French
everybody in America, but I am pissed,' Nagin said. Nagin said he told
Bush in a recent conversation that "we had an incredible crisis here and
that his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice ... I have
been all around this city and that I am very frustrated because we are
not able to marshal resources and we are outmanned in just about every
respect."
Jefferson Parish President: "We Have Been Abandoned By Our Own
Country." Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard told Tim Russert:
"We have been abandoned by our own country. Hurricane Katrina will go
down in history as one of the worst storms ever to hit an American
coast, but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will go down as one of the
worst cases of abandonment on American soil ever in U.S. history" Mayor and Governor] were told like me, every single day, "The cavalry's
coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's
coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of
the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear
the hoofs, and we're almost a week out. Nobody's coming to get us.
Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's
promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press
conferences. For God's sake, shut up and send us somebody." the Press, 9/4/05]
DHS SECRETARY MICHAEL CHERTOFF RESPONSIBLE FOR FAILURE
Former DHS Inspector General: Devastating Indictment of Department's
Performance. "This is what the department was supposed to be all about,"
said Clark Kent Ervin, DHS's former inspector general. "Instead, it
obviously raises very serious, troubling questions about whether the
government would be prepared if this were a terrorist attack. It's a
devastating indictment of this department's performance four years after
9/11."
Hazard Reduction Specialist: Chertoff Does Not Deserve A Passing Grade.
Michael Lindell, of Texas A&M University's Hazard Reduction and Recovery
Center, said that Chertoff doesn't deserve a "passing grade" for his
work over the past week. Like other emergency management specialists,
Lindell said the federal government had failed to make adequate plans
for a natural disaster forecast days in advance. 9/3/05]
FEMA Employee: Slow Federal Response Due To Chertoff's Inexperience. A
DHS spokesman said Chertoff's post-9/11 experience at the Justice
Department prepared him for his current responsibilities. But that
experience is inadequate, said a 20-year employee of FEMA who blamed the
slow federal response on the inexperience of Chertoff and his top
advisers. He said Chertoff did not enact response practices that had
been standard at the agency, said the employee, who added: "We have been
sitting here for three days, and we have been so frustrated. Some of us
are just in tears."
FEMA DIRECTOR MICHAEL BROWN RESPONSIBLE FOR FAILURE
FEMA Manager Said Teams On The Ground Unable To Help Because They Are
Waiting For Washington. "One FEMA middle manager, speaking on condition
of anonymity, said that FEMA's teams in the region were as frustrated as
state and local officials. He said they had been unable to reach people
in need because they were being forced to wait for direction from
Washington - direction that had not come."
New Orleansx Homeland Security Director: Like FEMA Has Never Been To A
Hurricane. Col. Terry Ebbert, director of homeland security for New
Orleans, complained that the whole recovery operation had been "carried
on the backs of the little guys for four goddamn days," and "the rest of
the goddamn nation can't get us any resources for security." He added,
"It's like FEMA has never been to a hurricane." 9/4/05]
Jefferson Parish President: FEMA Turned Back Help. Jefferson Parish
President Aaron Broussard told Tim Russert: "Bureaucracy has committed
murder here in the greater New Orleans area. We had Wal-Mart deliver
three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back.
They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000
gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The
Coast Guard said, 'Come get the fuel right away.' When we got there with
our trucks, they got a word. 'FEMA says don't give you the fuel.'
Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency
communication lines. They cut them without notice But I want to thank
Governor Blanco for all she's done and all her leadership. She sent in
the National Guard."
ADMINISTRATION PRAISED THEIR OWN FAILED RESPONSE
Chertoff: FEMA Doing "Magnificent Job." "Terry Ebbert, New Orleans'
homeland security chief, told WWL-TV that he thinks FEMA's response to
the disaster has been an 'embarrassment.' Walter Maestri, the emergency
management director in suburban Jefferson Parish, said FEMA and other
federal agencies are not delivering help nearly as fast as it is needed.
Yet, back in Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
told CNN Thursday that he believes he thinks FEMA and other federal
agencies have done a 'magnificent job,' citing their 'courage' and
'ingenuity.'
Michael Brown: Things Going "Relatively Well." In the hurricane-ravaged
city, where people are thirsty and hungry, living in squalid conditions
and in fear of armed bands of marauding looters, the response is seen as
confused, ineffective and puzzlingly slowYet, 80 miles away at the
Federal Emergency Management Agency command post in Baton Rouge, FEMA
Director Michael Brown told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Thursday evening that
"considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans,
virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively
well."
Bush Praised FEMA Director: "Brownie, You're Doing A Heck Of A Job."
Even though Bush has called the federal response to the disaster not
acceptable,he praised Brown Friday during a tour of Alabama, saying,
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," the AP reported. Tribune, 9/4/05]
###
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