Chertoff admits Katrina response fumbled (AP) Updated: 2006-02-16 08:47
Acknowledging delayed aid and fumbled coordination, Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday the federal response to Hurricane
Katrina fell far short of providing immediate help to the Gulf Coast that could
have saved lives.
Chertoff's Senate testimony came the same day a House panel released a
scathing report concluding that deaths, damage and suffering could have been
decreased if the White House and federal, state and local officials had
responded more urgently to Katrina.
Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff is pictured during his testimony before the
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Wednesday,
Feb. 15, 2006, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Chertoff sparred with
senators of both parties on Wednesday as he acknowledged 'many lapses' in
his agency's response to Hurricane Katrina.
[AP] |
"There are many lapses that occurred, and I've certainly spent a lot of time
personally, probably since last fall, thinking about things that might have been
done differently," Chertoff told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee about the Aug. 29 storm.
He called the hurricane "one of the most difficult and traumatic experiences
of my life."
Katrina was one of the costliest and deadliest natural disasters in U.S.
history, killing more than 1,300 people, causing tens of billions of dollars in
damage and forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes.
The House report — called "A Failure of Initiative" — found ample fault with
state and local officials, including delays in ordering early evacuations in New
Orleans. But it also criticized President Bush for failing to get more deeply
involved as the crisis unfolded.
In a sampling of 63 communications to the White House that the report
documents, at least eight were dated before Katrina's Aug. 29 landfall. The
documents show that presidential advisers were warned about potential disaster
as early as Aug. 27.
"Earlier presidential involvement might have resulted in a more effective
response," the inquiry concluded. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the
report Tuesday.
Chertoff, who took over Homeland Security a year ago Wednesday, oversees the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, which coordinated the federal response. He
promised the senators he would repair many of the shortfalls by the start of the
2006 hurricane season June 1.
"Our logistics capability in Katrina was woefully inadequate," he said. "I
was astonished to see we didn't have the capability most 21st-century
corporations have to track the flow of goods and services."
Republican and Democratic senators alike lectured Chertoff for his
department's lackluster performance.
Committee Chairwoman Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record), R-Maine,
said Homeland Security's response "must be judged a failure." She called it
"late, uncertain and ineffective."
Federal disaster responders "ran around like Keystone Kops, uncertain about
what they were supposed to do or uncertain how to do it," said Sen. Joe
Lieberman of Connecticut, the panel's top Democrat.
Lieberman needled Chertoff on why the security chief was in Atlanta at a bird
flu seminar on Aug. 30, the day after Katrina hit, instead of rushing to the
disaster scene.
"How could you go to bed that night (Aug. 29) not knowing what was going on
in New Orleans?" Lieberman asked.
Chertoff maintained he did not realize that New Orleans levees had been
breached until the next day. The levee failure resulted in massive flooding over
most of the city, stranding people on rooftops and rendering much of New Orleans
uninhabitable.
"When I went to bed, it was my belief ... that actually the storm had not
done the worst that could be imagined," Chertoff said.
The lack of urgency was the core of the House panel's conclusions in a report
detailing "a litany of mistakes, misjudgments, lapses, and absurdities all
cascading together, blinding us to what was coming and hobbling any collective
effort to respond."
The 520-page report added, "Government failed because it did not learn from
past experiences, or because lessons thought to be learned were somehow not
implemented."
In one memo that reached the White House shortly after midnight Aug. 30, a
FEMA official reported levee breaches, submerged houses, hundreds of people on
rooftops and bodies floating in the water. Others, two days later, described a
shooting of a National Guardsman at the Superdome and a hostage situation at
Tulane Hospital that turned out to be false.
Still, the House findings noted, "the enormity of Katrina seemed not to have
been fully understood by the White House until at least Tuesday, Aug. 30."
Chertoff said he would do things differently if he had the chance —
including, most notably, giving onsite responsibility for the relief effort to
someone other than former FEMA director Michael Brown. Brown, who quit under
fire days after Katrina hit, has accused Chertoff and White House officials of
ignoring his warnings on the day of the storm.
Collins told Chertoff "I remain perplexed" about his decision to designate
Brown as disaster coordinator.
Chertoff said there was "no reason to doubt his commitment" at the time.
"If I knew then what I know now about Mr. Brown's agenda, I would have done
something different," Chertoff added.
Responding, Brown maintained in an e-mail to The Associated Press that
Chertoff "hamstrung" him from responding faster by confining him to Baton Rouge
instead of sending him to disaster sites. He also said the House report supports
his position that Homeland Security "has decimated FEMA to the point it can't do
its job."
The hearing highlighted the searing emotions that Katrina evokes nearly six
months after it slammed into the Gulf Coast. At one point, a member of the
audience loudly heckled Chertoff, calling a FEMA decision to discontinue paying
for hotel rooms for evacuees "un-American."
Chertoff sat stoically during the outburst.
The Senate is preparing its own conclusions, due in March, about the storm
response, as is the White House in a report expected by the end of this month.
Meanwhile, Congress increased the borrowing power of the federal flood
insurance agency in an attempt to meet unprecedented claims from Katrina and
other hurricanes last year.
And White House reconstruction coordinator Don Powell announced $4.2 billion
in grants that will probably be used to help uninsured Louisiana homeowners
whose properties inside flood plains were destroyed. The money is part of an
anticipated $18 billion spending plan for the Gulf Coast.
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