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LoungeMachine
01-24-2006, 09:23 PM
January 24, 2006

Documents Show Katrina Warnings IgnoredWhite House Briefed on Levee Breach Two Days Before Storm Hit
By LUIS MARTINEZ

Jan. 24, 2006 — Documents released today by Congress show that two days before Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the White House received detailed damage forecasts from Homeland Security officials predicting that the city's levees might be overtopped or breached.

Yet in the days after the storm struck on Aug. 29, federal officials, including President Bush, said the levee breaches could not have been foreseen.

Embattled former FEMA Director Michael Brown said, "I think we were all taken aback by the fact that the levees did break in so many places and caused such widespread devastation."

Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff said, "I will tell you that really that perfect storm of combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners and maybe anybody's foresight."

And on Sept. 1, President Bush told "Good Morning America": ''I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees" that flooded New Orleans.

The documents provided today by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, however, showed that the federal agencies overseen by Brown and Chertoff had compiled damage forecasts for the White House at least 48 hours before the storm's landfall that predicted levee overtopping and breaches.



'Die Was Cast'

From an engineering standpoint, experts contacted today by ABC News don't believe anything could have been done to shore up the levees even with the advance warning because of existing design flaws in the levee system.

"The die was cast," said Dr. Ray Seed at the University of California at Berkeley, who is part of a review team funded by the National Science Foundation that's investigating the levee breaches. "Nothing could have been done."

Emergency-preparedness experts have said in the past that additional advance warning could also have been used by federal officials to press local officials to evacuate those New Orleans residents without easy access to transportation. It's been estimated that about 100,000 New Orleans residents were left behind when Katrina struck.

Seed agreed, saying the advance warning "could have been used by the federal government to stage additional resources in the city and massively improved the FEMA response."

Furthermore, he said the ongoing Science Foundation study has found that the schoolbuses frequently seen in their flooded parking spaces could have been used to evacuate stranded residents. After the storm struck, their gas tanks were found to be full and they were used to help evacuate stranded residents.



No Answers From White House

On Aug. 27, two days before the storm made landfall, FEMA had prepared a slide presentation for White House officials. The FEMA slides said a Category 4 storm surge "could greatly overtop levees and protective systems." It's unclear who at the White House received this briefing or how its contents were distributed afterward.

Hours before the storm made landfall, the White House Situation Room received a report prepared by the Department of Homeland Security in which experts predicted flooding "could leave the New Orleans metro area submerged for weeks or months." The report also said that hurricane damage could cost $10 billion to $14 billion.

At a hearing today, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said the White House has maintained a "refusal to answer" stance regarding questions and document requests by congressional investigators looking at the federal government's response to Katrina.

"Almost every question our staff has asked federal agency witnesses regarding conversations with or involvement of the White House has been met with a response that they could not answer on direction of the White House," Lieberman said.

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown has said that he notified the White House of his concerns about the storm on the weekend before it struck. Lieberman said that in a meeting with congressional investigators yesterday, Brown was advised by agency lawyers not to answer specific questions about whether he'd spoken to President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the days leading up to the storm.

Congressional investigators aren't the only ones facing difficulties in receiving information from the federal government. The National Science Foundation study researchers have encountered delays in receiving documents from the Army Corps of Engineers relevant to their review of the levee breaches.

LoungeMachine
01-24-2006, 09:25 PM
Originally posted by LoungeMachine



Brown was advised by agency lawyers not to answer specific questions about whether he'd spoken to President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the days leading up to the storm.




NO SHIT........PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY........


What, Me Worry?

-George W. Bush

Fucking bastard

diamondD
01-24-2006, 11:15 PM
Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Say things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse."
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
7. Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
9. Comparing the state of dead horses in todays environment.
10. Change the requirements declaring that "This horse is not dead."
11. Hire contractors to ride the dead horse.
12. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
13. Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat."
14. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
15. Do a Cost Analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
16. Purchase a product to make dead horses run faster.
17. Declare the horse is "better, faster and cheaper" dead.
18. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
19. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
20. Say this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
21. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

;)

Hardrock69
01-25-2006, 12:48 AM
5 Stars to diamondD

That was a grate post.

Much quality.

And Larg too!

:cool:

Hardrock69
01-25-2006, 01:00 AM
Oh, and as for Chimpy...

THAT LYING FUCK!!!

YA WANNA KNOW HOW TO TELL IF CHIMPY IS LYING???


HIS LIPS ARE MOVING!!!!



LMAO!

But then...he always talks out his ass....


Which end is his ass?

:D

ELVIS
01-25-2006, 03:42 AM
If a major earthqake devistated California next week, would it be Bush' fault ??

scamper
01-25-2006, 08:17 AM
Originally posted by diamondD
Dakota tribal wisdom

Where is the dakota tribe located?

Vanstonica
01-25-2006, 08:21 AM
My only question....with only 48 hours notice, and a major storm already on the way, what could they have done at that point that would have made any difference?

Just a general question....I'm not standing up for the White House.

scamper
01-25-2006, 08:26 AM
Everyone knew the levees were only built to withstand a Cat 3 when they were new. No matter where you live there is always a chance mother nature will slap you down. At least they got a weeks warning, the blame starts at the bottom and works its way up.

diamondD
01-25-2006, 08:53 AM
Originally posted by scamper
Where is the dakota tribe located?


They are also known as the Sioux.

BigBadBrian
01-25-2006, 09:37 AM
Originally posted by Vanstonica
My only question....with only 48 hours notice, and a major storm already on the way, what could they have done at that point that would have made any difference?

Just a general question....I'm not standing up for the White House.


No.

Everyone knows the BCE has a Hurricane Deflection Device (HDD) that they could have used to deflect the storm into a safer area. They didn't want to though because they wanted to punish the Negroes of New Orleans for voting against Dubya in the election. Everyone knows that.

LoungeMachine
01-25-2006, 09:57 AM
Originally posted by diamondD
They are also known as the Sioux.

No, I think that's the Lakota.

:cool:

LoungeMachine
01-25-2006, 10:16 AM
And if BushCO has nothing to hide, because it did nothing wrong, but are still interested in keeping it from happening again.........


THEN WHY ARE THEY FIGHTING THE INVESTIGATION? HMMM?


Juat like they fought the investigation into 9/11

thome
01-25-2006, 11:28 AM
The Mayor of NO had the hurricane created in his Diabolical laboratory
In order to turn NO into a Chocolate City.

Wouldn't that be nice like Homer Simpsons orgasmic Dream of a city
made of chocolate .

i'm shure The BCE, knew the Mayor was going to do this and let it happen.So you see even you don't know the true ability of the BCE.

HaHa Ha HA He thinks he wanted NO to be destroyed he played rite into Bushes hands The BCE is King Baby..!!

PS I lived in NO for 3 years if it wasn't for the loss of life that was the filthiest city i have ever been to and needed a douche how else to
destroy all those 1879 tenement roach hotels.

The Mayor did it all of it ,slow response ,late warnings. Now, he gets billions of dollars to Rebuild and come out the hero.Diabolical
that man is yes,........... diabolical.

Hardrock69
01-25-2006, 12:26 PM
Originally posted by BigBadBrian
No.

Everyone knows the BCE has a Hurricane Deflection Device (HDD) that they could have used to deflect the storm into a safer area. They didn't want to though because they wanted to punish the Negroes of New Orleans for voting against Dubya in the election. Everyone knows that.


Yeah, Brian really knows how it goes in Neo-Con Fantasy Land...
:rolleyes:

scamper
01-25-2006, 12:50 PM
Originally posted by Hardrock69
Yeah, Brian really knows how it goes in Neo-Con Fantasy Land...
:rolleyes:

Is that the place with the Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride?

Hardrock69
01-25-2006, 01:20 PM
You got it!
:D

FORD
01-25-2006, 01:22 PM
Originally posted by scamper
Where is the dakota tribe located?

Mostly Minnesota and Nebraska these days.

FORD
01-25-2006, 01:27 PM
Originally posted by LoungeMachine
No, I think that's the Lakota.

:cool:

Actually, the name "Sioux" includes the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota nations. But they are three branches of the same family, if you go back a few centuries or so.

4moreyears
01-25-2006, 01:34 PM
Originally posted by BigBadBrian
No.

Everyone knows the BCE has a Hurricane Deflection Device (HDD) that they could have used to deflect the storm into a safer area. They didn't want to though because they wanted to punish the Negroes of New Orleans for voting against Dubya in the election. Everyone knows that.

Signed by Mayor: C. Ray Nagin

Angel
01-25-2006, 02:44 PM
Originally posted by FORD
Actually, the name "Sioux" includes the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota nations. But they are three branches of the same family, if you go back a few centuries or so.

And the name "Sioux" was created by the French Canadians, who abbreviated the Algonquin compound Nadouéssioux (from nadowe ("Iroquois") plus siu ("snake"/the massasauga rattler), by which a neighboring Ojibwa tribe, or the Ottawa, referred to the Dakota to the west and south. This term is popularly interpreted as an insult but it could refer to a time when the Dakota people, like other southeastern tribes, were known to revere serpents (see Serpent Mounds in Ohio, feathered serpent, water serpents - unktehi/uktena, etc.)

Today many of the tribes continue to officially call themselves 'Sioux' which the Federal Government of the United States applied to all Dakota/Lakota/Nakoda people in the 19th and 20th centuries.

http://www.crystalinks.com/sioux.html

An ancestor of mine was a French Canadian Voyageur who married a Sioux nation woman. ;)