Around noon on the day when Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco told the Bush administration that the levees were safe:
"We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees… We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not […]
Part 1's link is here.
From "Experts: Katrina may have been weaker than first thought":
…When Katrina struck the mouth of the Mississippi River south of New Orleans at daybreak on Aug. 29, it was a Category 4, with wind speed of 135 mph, [Jack Beven, hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami] said. The […]
From "At NOAA, Making the Best of a Disaster to Build a Brand":
…when Hurricane Katrina roared across Gulf Coast states, the [National Weather Service] headquarters brass sent out word to make sure only the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration logo appeared on hurricane tracking maps, which draw hundreds of thousands of Internet hits.
" Scott Rayder […]
They might not be able to control the weather, but that doesn't mean they aren't trying to control the weather information: the Commerce Department is trying to get "message control" in place at the National Weather Service.
A Commerce memo leaked to this site lays down all the requirements that employees of NOAA (National Oceanic and […]
This completely unconfirmed post says that FEMA and the DHS might have been looking at different weather forecasts: one from the National Weather Service, and the other from Accuweather. Developing:
The Senate Commerce Committee held hearings this afternoon on Katrina. The House Science Committee will be holding hearing Wednesday morning (9/21). Sen. Ben Nelson (Florida) asked […]
The MSNBC article "Katrina forecasters were remarkably accurate" (subtitled "Levee breaks, catastrophic damage predicted, contrary to Bush claims") has an overview of the weather-related timeline and warnings. Plus, it manages to sneak in some anti-Bush asides:
For all the criticism of the Bush administration’s confused response to Hurricane Katrina, at least two federal agencies got it […]
The following appears to be the original, unedited warning from the NWS. See that link for the weatherbug reaction. Another original with a little discussion might be here. Cached versions are here. Warnings for other areas are here. The Drudge cache is here, although it's not known when that page was active.
NPWLIX
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL […]
