Washington – 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.
“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 and its wake.
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, “A Failure of Initiative,” found ample fault with state and local officials, including delays in ordering early evacuations in New Orleans. 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 as early as Aug. 27 about potential disaster.
“Earlier presidential involvement might have resulted in a more effective response,” the inquiry concluded.
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 June 1, the start of this year’s hurricane season.
“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, 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 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.
