The New York Times has a big front-page article today on “what did the Bush administration know and when did it know it” on leveeflood-wall breaches. Here is an e-mail from a friend who has been following this closely:
Hey Rich, all media accounts I have seen so far this morning show a typical lack of homework on levee breaches in New Orleans during and after hurricane Katrina. The downriver side of the Industrial Canal (Lower 9th, New Orleans East, Saint Bernard Parish) was battered and breached during the brunt of the Hurricane and the administration, from what I can tell, was aware of that early on. What they were not aware of right away (most everyone was not until early afternoon at the earliest on Monday landfall) were the breaches on the 17th Street Canal and the London Avenue Canal and the upriver side of the Industrial Canal, which breached AFTER the brunt of the storm had passed. Those latter three are what flooded all of New Orleans proper, including areas near downtown where the Superdome lies and where so much media coverage took place. It was not until well into the afternoon that waters rose into those areas and this is what the administration means when they were not aware of certain levee breaches until later on Monday and into Tuesday. However, if email and other communication demonstrates that senior administration people did know about the 17th Street, London Avenue, and upriver side of the Industrial Canal in the early Monday afternoon, then there are some serious problems with previous administration remarks.