Aurora – U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar called Sunday for an independent investigation of the government’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.
The Colorado Democrat said the government needs an outside review of how officials failed to fulfill their key mission of protecting people during a crisis.
“I’m hopeful that an independent, impartial, nonpartisan commission will take a look at what happened,” Salazar said, “and can come up with recommendations for the nation so that we can prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again.”
The government, he said, needs to focus on the three Rs of disaster preparation: readiness, response and recovery.
“I think what Hurricane Katrina shows is that we’re not yet ready to respond to these kinds of disasters,” Salazar said after touring dormitories at the former Lowry Air Force Base where 375 Gulf Coast evacuees are housed.
Salazar toured the site to evaluate how evacuees are receiving aid from the government and from the private sector.
The Red Cross has processed 465 evacuees at the Lowry center, where they can receive financial aid, medical attention and mental-health counselling, spokeswoman Nicole Adair said.
Some evacuees processed at Lowry have moved in with family, friends and volunteers offering shelter rather than stay in the dorms.
As Salazar praised Coloradans for their generosity, members of the Civil Air Patrol were erecting tents on the edge of the Lowry campus to hold donated goods that were overflowing from trailers.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
