Posted on 03/03/2006 2:40:36 PM PST by ncountylee
WASHINGTON -- As Hurricane Katrina loomed over the Gulf Coast, federal and state officials agonized over the threat to levees and lives. Hours after the catastrophic storm hit, Louisiana's governor believed New Orleans' crucial floodwalls were still intact.
"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 - the day the storm hit the Gulf coast.
"We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee," she said on a video of the day's disaster briefing that was obtained Thursday night by The Associated Press. "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.
Not until the day after Katrina roared ashore did the White House confirm that its surge had, in fact, breached the levees - a delay that critics charge held up repair efforts and allowed the deadly flooding to worsen.
Michael Brown, the former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief who resigned under fire for mishandling the disaster, said Friday that rescue workers should have been sent to New Orleans earlier, regardless of whether reports of a breach had been confirmed.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbc5.com ...
Oopsie
There is no way LA DummyRATs are going to take responsibility for this as long as they are allowed to drag W through the mud.
I'm surprised they're even allowing the truth to slip out. How uncharacteristic of these leftist liars......
If critics say this, they are stupid.
Once the breach was found, they were unable to repair it until the water level through it equalized, meaning until NO was completely under water.
They tried to drop things into the breach, but it was so large that the sandbags simply got washed away, so they finally gave up and waited for the pressure to get closer to equalized.
I haven't read / heard / seen the news anywhere of how the video of W being briefed pre-Katrina, and the video of Blanco (the subject of this video) got into the hands of the press.
Anyone heard?
Brown is an idiot. The Coast guard was in New Orleans, rescuing people, while the back end of the storm was still passing over the area.
If other rescuers were needed that weren't put in place by state and local officials, Brown was responsible for the FEMA part of that deal, so I don't know who he is saying should have got the extra rescuers. The House report suggests that Brown's FEMA turned down rescue worker offers.
What is Blameo's approval rating?
According to this it was a Dem Staffer....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1588601/posts
Levee's weren't breached. The water didn't go over them.
Levee's collapsed. Totally different.
Thank you.
It definitely had that demaroma.
I wonder what bar in the French Quarter she passed her time the night before ... c'mon girl, get a sponsor!
I'm waiting for the 60 minutes special where they explain how Bush wasn't actually at fault....
I think I'll hold my breath until it comes on......
Is the AP admitting they made a few mistakes over the last few days in reporting this story?
All this "Who shot John" crap is the silliest waste of breath. Even if the federal government had ordered mandatory evacuation, provided chauffered limosine rides to luxury lodgings in a safe area, these people would have insisted on staying. If any government agency had tried to forcibly evacuate them, the "civil libertarians" would have raised nine kinds of hell. Then, if Bush had ordered an evacuation and then the tragic flooding hadn't happened, the bumper sticker mentality would put out: "Bush Lied - And People Had to Take a Ride". Pointless discussions foisted on us by essentially gutless politicians who don't have the balls to say, "These idiots played 'hurricane roulette' and lost - and if the same thing were to happen again the same way next year, the same idiots would do the same effin' thing"
Get a good look at it... it'll be the last time you see or hear it ANYWHERE.
I don't care what the report was. If you have a big honkin' hurricane heading toward your below-sea-level city, you get out. What's so difficult?!?
Unfortunately, I know that. The best we can hope for is mention on Special Report, but the MSM won't touch it again.
Levee's weren't breached.
So when are Kanye and Oprah and the rest of them going to start saying "Kathleen Blanco doesn't care about black people?" Ha ha.
Right on. Thanks for the post.
I wonder if the AP is "stung" that they gave us the wrong information yesterday.
The old media and their party are deeply saddened. The real question is: Why was Bush taping the conversation? Was this part of his spying on Americans program?
I don't care what the report was. If you have a big honkin' hurricane heading toward your below-sea-level city, you get out. What's so difficult?!?""
Perhaps haveing the brains to understand what "below sea level" means.
Blanco is dumber than dirt....but the Louisinas would vote for her again. I.m sure!!
I just read in the Baton Rouge paper that revenues were higher than expected, so she wants to use it to give teachers a pay raise! Forget that the federal government is spending billions on her state, she's going to use a surplus to satisfy the teacher's unions.
We had reports here in Houston of NOLAns who had left early on Saturday and Sunday, driving over here to stay in hotels or with family/friends and MANY of them getting calls from their security companies back home that all the alarms were going off, looters had already started breaking in.
Alors!Les incompetents!
I am not surprised.
This native New Orleanian KNOWS that most of the country considers us low class, ignorant and disposable. What the rest of the country doesn't fully appreciate is that the rest of LOUISIANA feels the same way about New Orleans.
Privately, many fellow Louisianans are GLAD the city was decimated. And they know we know.
Another thing- the most obvious,IMO.
We can talk to men on the MOON!
We know when an asteroid hits the moon. We can communicate with men in subs under the Arctic shelf.
But Baton Rouge can't communicate with New Orleans during/after a storm? Baton Rouge has no way of knowing if a levee is leaking or totally GONE only 90 miles away?
Sensors like those that measure the most minute of earthquakes can't be placed in levee structures?
First and foremost this is CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE on a local level!
Liberals and the media keep trying to make what was Blanco's responsibility be Bush's responsibility. At the time of the levee breach Blanco was in charge of every person in New Orleans. Any federal workers there were working in coordination with her orders.
Any reasonable logical person would have had the proper people in emergency management monitoring the levees immediately after the storm and reporting back to her because the levees were of paramount importance. Why was she standing up there giving we think, we hope, possibly could be, I dunno information to everyone when it was HER responsibility at that time to KNOW and relay that info to others. And if she didn't care or was too stupid to do that then you think at least Nagin would have had someone doing it because he was the mayor of the freaking city.
I'm convinced Blanco was getting instructions from DNC headquarters on how to handle the situation so that in the end it could be blamed on President Bush.
She royally screwed up.
...........And if she didn't care or was too stupid to do that then you think at least Nagin would have had someone doing it because he was the mayor of the freaking city.......
But, Nagin and his immediate administration, was holed up in a hotel room during and after the storm, trying to use a satellite phone with a dead battery. He was incommunicato for the height of the storm and for a day or so afterward, until one of them stole some batteries from an already looted store.
I don't know her approval rating, but I know there was a poll that had Jindal beating her by over 15pts.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco answers questions about the recent videotape of President Bush's pre Katrina briefing as she arrives in the French Quarter of New Orleans on Thursday, March 2, 2006. Six months after last year's hurricane, a 34-member congressional delegation led by the House's top Republican and Democrat arrived in Louisiana on Thursday to see the devastation up close. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Blanco giving comments on Bourbon Street in front of a strip bar. Perfect!
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