2006年VOA标准英语-Probing the Government's Response to Katri

（单词翻译）

By Peter Fedynsky
Washington, DC
26 January 2006
 
watch Katrina Response report
 

Hurricane Katrina rescue  
  
Senators probing the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated¹ the city of New Orleans on other parts of America's Gulf² Coast, say the White House is refusing to cooperate in a congressional investigation³ of the disaster.  The inquiry⁴ comes amid revelations that the administration was apparently⁵ warned in advance that Katrina could breach⁶ levees in New Orleans and leave the city under water. 

------------------------------------------

After Hurricane Katrina, President Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said no one could have expected levees, or floodwalls, to fail in New Orleans.
 
 
President George W. Bush (file photo) 
  
"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees," President Bush said.

"That perfect storm of combination of catastrophes⁷ exceeded the foresight⁸ of the planners and maybe anybody's foresight,” said Mr. Chertoff.

However, Mr. Chertoff's own planners apparently had such foresight because Homeland Security officials sent an e-mail to the White House warning about levee failure five hours before Katrina made landfall on August 29th.

At a news conference in Washington on Wednesday, the interim⁹ president of the American Red Cross, Jack¹⁰ McGuire, noted¹¹ that the media, including the largest newspaper in New Orleans, carried similar warnings.
 

Michael Chertoff (file photo)   
  
"In 2002, the New Orleans Times-Picayune ran a five-part series describing problems with the levee system,” he said.

Senators investigating the government's response to Katrina say the White House is hampering¹² the inquiry by prohibiting administration officials from openly answering questions posed by lawmakers. 

White House Spokesman Scott McClellan rejects the charge. "There are some 120 administration officials that been made available to the committees for interviews or for hearings; you have some 15,000 pages of documents that have been provided by the Executive Office of the President, some 240,000 pages provided by the Department of Defense¹³ and some 300,000 pages provided by the Department of Homeland Security."

 
Jack McGuire
  
Meanwhile, American Red Cross President Jack McGuire says the proper role of government in emergencies should be to coordinate¹⁴ and support public and private relief efforts.  He adds that governments are not the only entities¹⁵ that should be prepared for disaster, noting that private organizations, businesses, and individuals should also be ready.

"We are all more vulnerable than we need to be,” said McGuire.  “All emergency plans assume that people will have the knowledge and supplies to take care of themselves for at least 72 hours after a disaster."

Mr. McGuire noted that most families do not have so much as a bottle of water or a first aid kit¹⁶, much less a plan to deal with disaster.