I’ve been pondering this paradox for the past day and wondering how the apparent good-cop/bad-cop routine of the Bush administration officials vs. Bush himself is going to play out.
On the one hand there’s Chertoff and FEMA’s Michael “Brownie” Brown saying people should have gotten out of Dodge before the disaster. On the other, Bush (and Brownie) are saying nobody could have predicted the levee breach (aka “the disaster”).
I’d be interested in seeing a reporter ask Chertoff to reconcile the statements. The hurricane’s winds weren’t the reason the evacuation order was issued.
New Orleans Braces for Powerful Katrina
By ALLEN G. BREED, Associated Press Writer
Sun Aug 28, 7:45 PM ETNEW ORLEANS – A monstrous Hurricane Katrina barreled toward New Orleans on Sunday with 165-mph wind and a threat of a 28-foot storm surge, forcing a mandatory evacuation of the below-sea-level city and prayers for those who remained to face a doomsday scenario.
. . .
A grim Mayor C. Ray Nagin conceded Katrina’s storm surge pushing up the Mississippi River would swamp New Orleans’ system of levees, flooding the bowl-shaped city and causing potentially months of misery.
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