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January 24, 2006
George Caught in Another Lie
The NY Times reported that the Department of Homeland Security told the White House that Hurricane Katrina would create an excessive amount of damage and exceed their previous doomsday predictions. This clearly contradicts the President's assertions that no one expected such a disaster. (NYT)
A Homeland Security Department report submitted to the White House at 1:47 a.m. on Aug. 29, hours before the storm hit, said, "Any storm rated Category 4 or greater will likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching."
The internal department documents, which were forwarded to the White House, contradict statements by President Bush and the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, that no one expected the storm protection system in New Orleans to be breached.
"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," Mr. Bush said in a television interview on Sept. 1. "Now we're having to deal with it, and will."
Other documents to be released Tuesday show that the weekend before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Homeland Security Department officials predicted that its impact would be worse than a doomsday-like emergency planning exercise conducted in Louisiana in July 2004.
In that drill, held because of common knowledge that New Orleans was susceptible to hurricane-driven flooding, emergency planners predicted that in a Category 3 storm, one million people would be forced to move away, 17 percent of the nation's oil refining capacity would be knocked out and as many as 60,000 lives might be lost.
With all the issues in the media now I doubt that this will get huge traction in the mainstream press, but it is still another big loss for the President.
Posted by Chip Spear at January 24, 2006 2:28 PM