FEMA Official Says Boss Ignored Warnings
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
news.yahoo.com
Top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials did not respond to repeated warnings that the situation in New Orleans was growing dire in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the first FEMA official to arrive in the city said Thursday.
Marty Bahamonde, regional director of FEMA, told a Senate panel investigating the government's response to the disaster that after the storm hit on Aug. 29, he gave regular updates to then-FEMA Director Michael Brown of the worsening situation at the Superdome, where many of the evacuees were sheltered.
Medical care was lacking and so were basic needs such as food, water and toilet paper, Bahamonde said.
"I told him that the Superdome conditions were deplorable, and that we desperately needed food and water," Bahamonde said in testimony to the Senate Homeland Security panel. "I believed at the time and still do today, that I was confirming the worse-case scenario that everyone had always talked about regarding New Orleans."
His testimony contradicts Brown, who has said he didn't learn of the conditions until days later and that local officials were most responsible for the sluggish response.
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