President George W. Bush is partly to blame for the extent of devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, which left more than 1,500 people dead in the southeastern United States last year, Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman said Thursday.
“The White House shares responsibility for the inadequate pre-landfall preparations,” said Lieberman, the number-two lawmaker on a Senate panel that investigated the disaster for seven months.
Lieberman said that only the US Coast Guard, the search and rescue service of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and the National Weather Service did a solid job in the face of the natural disaster’s wrath.
“Everybody else dishonored themselves and didn’t fulfill their responsibilities,” he charged.
“To be sure, President Bush, at the request of FEMA director (Michael) Brown, did take the initiative to personally call (Louisiana) Governor (Kathleen) Blanco to urge a mandatory evacuation,” Lieberman said.
Bush “also took the unusual step of declaring an emergency in the Gulf states prior to Katrina making landfall,” he added.
“On the other hand, the president did not leave his Texas ranch to return to Washington until two days after landfall, and only then convened his cabinet as well as a White House task force to oversee federal response efforts,” said the Connecticut Democrat, who was the party’s vice presidential hopeful in 2000.
The report, entitled “Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared,” comes just over a month ahead of the new Atlantic hurricane season’s start.
Is the country “as well prepared as it should be?” Lieberman asked. “I fear not. I think it would be best prepared if we had … reorganization in place as soon as possible.”
“We’re clearly better prepared than last year, but are we prepared enough? No, we’re not, and we’re still operating with a flawed system,” added Republican Susan Collins.
Source: Agence France-Presse
