US unprepared for, overwhelmed by Katrina - report

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Federal emergency agencies were unprepared for the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina and quicker involvement by President George W. Bush might have improved their response, said a harsh congressional report written by Republicans and released on Wednesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledged that his department was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the storm when it hit Aug. 29 but said it was wrong to suggest he and Bush were unresponsive.

“I have to say that the idea that this department and this administration and the president were somehow detached from Katrina is simply not correct,” Chertoff told a hearing of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee. “We were acutely aware of Katrina and the risk it posed.”

The report released by a U.S. House of Representatives panel was a rare criticism of the administration by congressional Republicans. It said the response to the hurricane, which killed 1,200 people and destroyed about 300,000 homes, was “a failure of initiative. It was a failure of leadership.”

“It takes presidential action to quickly deploy the logistical capability of the military to meet the tremendous food, shelter, and medical needs of large affected populations,” said the report.

It said Bush did not receive adequate advice and counsel from senior staff during the crisis.

“Federal agencies, including (the Department of Homeland Security), had varying degrees of unfamiliarity with their roles and responsibilities,” the report concluded.

Chertoff noted Bush declared the Gulf coastal region a disaster area before the storm hit landfall and said that action was unprecedented. Despite preparations for the storm, he said the agency was quickly overtaken by events.

“We now know our capabilities were simply overwhelmed by the magnitude of this storm,” Chertoff said.

CRITICAL OF STATE AND LOCAL RESPONSES

Last week in testimony last week to the same Senate committee, Michael Brown, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, accused Chertoff of being “detached” during the storm.

Chertoff said the former FEMA director had been unhappy with the organization of the department, but said “it was astonishing” to hear Brown, who quit under fire after the storm, say last week that he deliberately bypassed the secretary to communicate directly with the White House.

Two congressional panels are investigating the government’s response to the storm that devastated states along the Gulf of Mexico and flooded New Orleans.

Democrats, who had formally boycotted the House investigation fearing it would be a whitewash, generally praised the effort.

But House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said the report represented a “one-sided” view of the disaster and repeated her call for an independent commission similar to the one established after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The House report was critical of state and local government responses as well as the federal effort. It said the incomplete evacuation before the storm hit landfall led to deaths, thousands of dangerous rescues, and horrible conditions for those left behind.

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