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End report slams 'passivity' over Katrina
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-15 09:39
Government at all levels took only an indifferent stance toward disaster
preparations after the 2001 terror attacks, leaving the Gulf Coast unnecessarily
vulnerable to Hurricane Katrina, a House inquiry concludes.
Finding fault with the White House down to local officials, the House
investigation determined that authorities failed to move quickly to protect
people — even when faced with warnings days ahead of the storm last Aug 29.
The final report, written by a Republican-dominated special House committee,
was obtained The Associated Press on Tuesday night ahead of its scheduled
release Wednesday. Parts of the report were released Sunday.
New Orleans
Mayor Ray Nagin speaks at the opening of the Tulane University Hospital in
New Orleans on Tuesday Feb. 14, 2006. The hospital, which sustained more
than $90 million in damage from Hurricane Katrina, reopened its emergency
room, several operating rooms and some beds Tuesday at an exuberant, pep
rally-style ceremony.
[AP] | "Passivity did the most damage,"
concluded the 520-page report by the committee, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis,
R-Va., charged with investigating the sluggish response to Katrina. "The failure
of initiative cost lives, prolonged suffering, and left all Americans
justifiably concerned our government is no better prepared to protect its people
than it was before 9/11, even if we are."
"The preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina should disturb all
Americans," the report said.
The House report is the first to be completed in a series of inquiries by
Congress and the Bush administration about the massive failures exposed by
Katrina, which left more than 1,300 people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama
dead, tens of thousands homeless and billions of dollars worth of damage in her
wake. Despite President Bush's accepting full responsibility for the federal
government's shortfalls, the storm response continues to generate
finger-pointing.
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