FEMA Official Says Agency Disregarded His Warnings: "In a series of increasingly dire, angry e-mails and phone calls, Bahamonde updated Brown, aides and top spokesmen for FEMA beginning Aug. 28 from the New Orleans emergency operations center and then from the Superdome across the street.And tell them what?
'Issues developing at the Superdome. The medical staff at the dome says they will run out of oxygen in about two hours and are looking for alternative oxygen,' Bahamonde wrote to FEMA Region VI spokesman David Passey on Aug. 28.
That night, 25,000 people were inside including 400 people with special medical needs and 45 who required hospitalization. The center was short of toilet paper, water and food, the last of which was adequate through Tuesday only because a Coast Guard helicopter crew found and broke into five abandoned FEMA trailer trucks at Bahamonde's direction, Bahamonde said today.
On Aug. 29, Bahamonde said, he called Brown about 7 p.m. and warned him of 'massive flooding,' that 20,000 people were short of food and water at the Superdome and that thousands of people were standing on roofs or balconies seeking rescue.
Brown replied only, 'Thank you. I'm going to call the White House,' Bahamonde said."
The administration tries to maintain the Sound of Silence while the world sees it as On The Turning Away.
Grrr.
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