Video Killed the Radio Star
…and it works both ways.
“We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees,” Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29, according to the video that was obtained Thursday night. “We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not breached the levee at this time.”
In fact, the National Weather Service received a report of a levee breach and issued a flash-flood warning as early as 9:12 a.m. that day, according to the White House’s formal recounting of events the day Katrina struck.
Karma. It’s a bitch. And…
Reality check: Who said what about Katrina?
New video contradicts former FEMA head’s recent statements
NBC News has now obtained the videotape of a key private meeting between federal and state officials on Monday Aug. 29, the day Hurricane Katrina hit. Though Michael Brown has been critical of President Bush, the tape shows Brown praising the president that day, saying they’d already talked twice.
…We now know that an hour before Blanco’s assessment, a FEMA official alerted superiors to reports that at least one levee had failed — information that didn’t reach the White House until almost midnight.
Well, that sure s*cks for your book deal, eh Brownie? Loser. Now, for something completely different…
(Editor’s Notes)…Whatever the failings of the government’s response, it is hard to imagine any rescue effort reaching victims scattered across perhaps 1000 square miles as quickly as critics demanded.
(Debunking Katrina’s Myths)…Bumbling by top disaster management officials fueled a perception of general inaction, one that was compounded by impassioned news anchors. In fact, the response to Hurricane Katrina was by far the largest – and the fastest -rescue effort in U.S. history, with nearly 100,000 emergency personnel arriving on the scene within three days of the storm’s landfall.
Dozens of National Guard and Coast guard helicopters flew rescue operations that first day – some just 2 hours after Katrina hit the coast.
From “Debunking Katrina’s Myths” in Popular Mechanics’ March 2006 issue. If you don’t have it yet, buy one. They take on the insurance angles, the levee breaches, death and destruction at the Superdome ~ wonderful information in a most dispassionate fashion. Buy it.
UPDATE: According to a Drudge link, the AP has clarified that the “breach” they reported did not accurately reflect the “overrun” the president had been briefed on. Depends what your definition of…oh…never mind.
WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a March 1 story, The Associated Press reported that federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees in New Orleans, citing confidential video footage of an Aug. 28 briefing among U.S. officials.
The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun. The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking.
Life | tree hugging sister | 
March 2, 2006 10:45 pm
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all you political guys are still “blaming” the ones in charge.
Did you bother to read the PopMech article?
100 000 rescuers saved thousands of lives.
Those “in charge” were not God, and could not zap people up in a transporter. All they could have done is send in rescuers…but there were previously drawn contingency plans that already had done that.
By blaming Blanco/Blameevilbushy type political blogs miss the real story: That of ordinary heroism on an unpresidented scale that was ignored by our MSM…