Read FEMA Official Discusses Failure to Respond, on NPR

a dailykos diary by Paul in Berkeley [Fri Sep 16th, 2005]

Here's an excerpt:

"As early as Friday, Aug. 26, Bosner knew that Katrina could turn into a major emergency.
In daily e-mails -- known as National Situation Updates -- sent to Chertoff, Brown and others in the days before Katrina made landfall in the Gulf Coast, Bosner warned of its growing strength -- and of the particular danger the hurricane posed to New Orleans, much of which lies below sea level.

But Bosner says FEMA failed to organize the massive mobilization of National Guard troops and evacuation buses needed for a quick and effective relief response when Katrina struck. He says he and his colleagues at FEMA's D.C. headquarters were shocked by the lack of response.
"We could see all this going downhill," Bosner said, "but there was nothing we could do."...


"I've been with FEMA since the agency was started in 1979, so that's 26 years...."

[Regarding the response to the Saturday, August 27 alert]: "There were some resources being mobilized, but really not quite enough for that kind of a scale...They get these things [the updates] in person, they go through their office computer and their Blackberry...."

"We sent the information up...we're the staff, we're not the President or the Director of FEMA or something...we sent the information up and we expected that by the time we came in everything would be swinging into action, and we got there and it was the sounds of silence [Bosner quietly chuckles in disbelief, according to the diarist's ears]...."