Common Dreams | News & Views

Michael Brown, head of the federal disaster agency at the time of
Hurricane Katrina, has reopened a painful wound for President George
Bush, charging that the White House knew New Orleans' protective levees
had broken far earlier than it had acknowledged

Testifying to a Senate committee yesterday, Mr Brown said that by the
evening of Monday 29 August, his FEMA agency had reported to superiors
that catastrophic floodwaters were pouring into the city, that fires
were breaking out and large numbers of people were stranded.

Conditions, a FEMA message said that evening, were "far more
serious" than media reports suggested. Nonetheless the following
morning, Mr Bush told the country from his ranch in Texas that New
Orleans had "dodged the bullet".