Crooks and Liars has a
video up of what appears to be a Presidential video conference recorded a day or more before Katrina made landfall and flooded the city of New Orleans. The video shows both FEMA Director Mike "Heckuva job" Brownie saying he had a gut feeling this would be the "big one" and storm meteorologist Max Mayfield standing in front of a radar image indicating a breach in the levees, specifically from Lake Pontchartrain driven by high winds, was a concern:
[Link] "I don't think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not but that is obviously a very, very grave concern," Mayfield told the briefing.
Bush on Good Morning America, Thursday Sep 1, three days after Katrina made landfall:
[Source WAPO] "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached. And as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded. And now we are having to deal with it and will."
A few synonyms from Thesaurus.com for anticipate: Forecast, foresee, foretaste, foretell, predict, prepare for, previse, prognosticate, prophesy, see, see coming, suppose, visualize ...
A couple of dictionary definitions of anticipate: 1. To feel or realize beforehand; foresee 2. Make a prediction about; tell in advance
But Brownie was quick to defend his Boss as being "fully engaged" before and after the storm. Bush was fully engaged all right. But fully engaged in what exactly?
Update: Kudos to geordie for being on the ball and getting a diary up on this.
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