Editorial: Stop stonewalling on Katrina

Thursday, Jan. 26, 2006 | 7 a.m.

With many areas of the Gulf Coast still in shambles and without electricity, and with federal aid still not reaching desperate people, the devastation unleashed Aug. 29 by Hurricane Katrina continues to be a top news story. And new information about the slow federal response to the storm continues to surface.

This week The Washington Post reported that the White House received a computer slide presentation from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Aug. 27. During this session, FEMA officials stressed that Katrina's coming impact could be even worse than that of a mock Gulf Coast Category 3 hurricane envisioned during a 2004 preparedness session.

"Hurricane Pam," as the mock storm was named, would bring massive flooding, especially in New Orleans, that would destroy infrastructure and kill thousands of people, according to the training session's findings. Katrina, the FEMA officials said during the White House briefing, "could greatly overtop levees and protective systems," and destroy nearly 90 percent of New Orleans' structures, the Post reported. The FEMA officials also warned of "incredible search and rescue needs (60,000-plus)" and said more than a million people could be displaced, the newspaper reported.

And on Aug. 29, hours before the Category 4 Katrina made landfall, a division of the Homeland Security Department sent a 41-page e-mail to the White House Situation Room, the Post reported. The e-mail, the Post said, warned that Katrina would "likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching" and it warned specifically about levee breaks along Lake Pontchartrain.

These documented warnings sent to the White House before Hurricane Katrina hit do not square with a remark President Bush made Sept. 1 on ABC's "Good Morning America." The president said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Congress wants an answer to why such a discrepancy occurred. And two congressional committees are trying to get it, along with answers to why the federal response was so painfully slow despite the life-and-death struggles of so many victims.

But the Bush White House is stonewalling. The New York Times reported this week it is citing "the confidentiality of executive branch communications" in refusing to provide the committees with needed Katrina documents and sworn testimony by White House staff. "There has been a near-total lack of cooperation that has made it impossible, in my opinion, for us to do the thorough investigation that we have a responsibility to do," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said Tuesday during a committee hearing.

It is outrageous that the White House would claim confidentiality on a domestic matter involving the safety of imperiled Americans. The White House should turn over all requested documents and make its staff members available for testimony. If it doesn't, Congress should use its subpoena power. If there is still no cooperation, Congress should appeal to the courts.