Brown: FEMA Was Unaware? 'Baloney!'

Ex-FEMA Chief Blames Bush Administration For Katrina Response

(CBS/AP) 
"Nothing specific, I just thought they needed to be aware," Brown answered.

Brown said he preferred going right to the White House rather than having to deal with wading through the "additional bureaucracy" of Homeland Security.

He recounted his success in managing previous disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, fires and the 2003 Columbia space shuttle explosion.

A management audit prepared by Brown months before the Aug. 29 storm showed that the agency had a lack of adequate and consistent situational awareness to size up emergencies, and was unable to properly control inventory and track assets, Collins told fellow committee members.

Collins said the audit also showed that FEMA misunderstood standard response procedures.

Brown's appearance in front of the Senate investigative panel came as new documents reveal that 28 federal, state and local agencies, including the White House, reported levee or embankment failures on Aug. 29, according to a timeline of e-mails, situation updates and weather reports pieced together by Senate Democrats. The documents indicate the Bush administration knew as early as 8:30 a.m. Aug. 29 about levee failures that would ultimately lead to massive flooding of the city and its surrounding parishes.

That litany was at odds with the administration's contention that it didn't know the extent of the problem until much later. At the time, Mr. Bush said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Mr. Bush and his top aides were fully aware of the massive flooding, and less concerned whether it was caused by levee breaches, overtoppings or failed pumps, all three of which were being reported at the time.

"We knew there was flooding and that's why the No. 1 effort in those early hours was on search and rescue, and saving life and limb," Duffy said.

Democrats said the documents showed there was little excuse for the tardy federal response.

"The first communication came at 8:30 a.m.," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "So it is inexplicable to me how those responsible for the federal response could have woken up Tuesday morning unaware of this obviously catastrophic situation."

The first internal White House communication about levee failures came at 11:13 a.m. on Aug. 29 in a "Katrina Spot Report" by the White House Homeland Security Council, Roberts reports.

"Flooding is significant throughout the region and a levee in New Orleans has reportedly been breached sending 6-8 feet of water throughout the 9th ward area of the city," the internal report said.

Brown, now a private citizen, has said his Katrina-related communications with Mr. Bush and other top White House officials no longer fall under executive confidentiality protections, a possible signal that his testimony will assign blame elsewhere.

Brown quit FEMA on Sept. 12 after he was relived of his onsite command in the Gulf Coast, and left the federal payroll Nov. 2. He testified in front of a House investigation panel in September.