The day storm hit, Bush was worried about levees (gap in concern, action)

[sabra]

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/washington/index.ssf?/base/news-1/114119685117810.xml

The day storm hit, Bush was worried about levees
Transcript shows gap in concern, action

WASHINGTON -- On the day that Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, President Bush and a top presidential aide were worried about whether New Orleans' levees had held, according to a transcript of discussions among disaster officials on the front lines of the storm.

Those concerns, expressed about midday Aug. 29, are in contrast to an image of a detached president and also to what happened later that night. That's when an official manning the federal emergency operations center held off acting on reports of levee breaches as he waited for confirmation.

The White House was chastised recently by a House committee for not moving more quickly to address the failed levees that ultimately plunged 80 percent of New Orleans under water.

...

Brown told congressional investigators that had the White House been monitoring the calls, "They would have known what was going on."

:mad: