Bush Disnegaged, Vacations Despite Dire Katrina Warnings

The confidential video obtained by the Associated Press shows very strong warnings being given to Mr Bush about the potential strength of the storm.

It appears to contradict subsequent suggestions by the Bush administration that the threat had been unclear.

Critics say more could have been done sooner to evacuate the city.


I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees
George W Bush, speaking after the disaster

Speaking by video link from a room in his Texan holiday ranch on 28 August last year, Mr Bush is shown telling officials: "We are fully prepared".

He does not ask any questions as the situation is outlined to him.

Along with the video, AP obtained transcripts of seven days of briefings relating to Katrina.

Clear warning

The footage does the president no favours, the BBC's Justin Webb reports from Washington.

President Bush being briefed about Katrina on eve of disaster
AP obtained both the video and transcripts of other briefings

It shows plainly worried officials telling Mr Bush very clearly before the storm hit that it could breach New Orleans flood barriers.

In the past, the president has said nobody anticipated a breach but the video shows Michael Brown, the top emergency response official who has since resigned, saying the storm would be "a bad one, a big one".

"We're going to need everything that we can possibly muster, not only in this state and in the region, but the nation, to respond to this event," Mr Brown says.

He also gives a strong, clear warning that evacuees in the Super Dome in New Orleans could not be given proper assistance.

'Very, very grave'

Another official, Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center, tells the final briefing that storm models predict minimal flooding inside New Orleans during the hurricane.

But he adds that the possibility of anticlockwise winds and storm surges could cause the levees at Lake Pontchartrain to be overrun afterwards is "obviously a very, very grave concern".

His concern was borne out by events when levees collapsed, letting in the floodwater disastrously.

The president, however, said four days after the storm: "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Mr Bush later accepted he shared some of the responsibility for the flawed response to Katrina and the White House talked of the "fog of war" rendering decision-making difficult.

Michael Brown told AP this week that he did not "buy the 'fog of war' defence".

"It was a fog of bureaucracy," he said.