John Kerry Hits with Knock Out Punch on Documents Proving Bush Administration Failed to Heed Early Warnings on Katrina

Earlier today, I posted a piece about the news today reported by the WaPo and the NY Times that “48 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, the White House received detailed warnings about the storm’s likely impact.”

John Kerry just released the following statement -- a knock out punch, in my opinion -- on the release of documents proving that the administration was fully and accurately briefed on the risks Hurricane Katrina posed to the Gulf Coast:

“How is it that the White House Situation Room received detailed warnings 48 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, that the National Hurricane Center was warning CNN and the world that Katrina could be The Big One, that FEMA reported two days before landfall that Katrina’s surge ‘could greatly overtop levees and protective systems,’ destroy nearly 90 percent of city structures, require ‘incredible search and rescue needs (60,000-plus),’ and displace more than a million people – and the President days later still insisted on national television, ‘I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees’ that left 1,300 dead and thousands more homeless?

“Where’s the accountability? Where’s the compassion?

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