Louisiana governor blames Katrina failures on levees

Even as Congress was trying to settle differences over how much money to give New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast areas devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the blame game continued Wednesday in the House Select Hurricane Katrina Committee looking into the disasters.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, in asking for more relief aid, blamed the failure of the levees. The evacuation plans of the city of New Orleans and the state, she said, were amazingly successful -- getting more than 1 million people out -- despite the 100,000 or so left behind.

Members of the panel, mostly Republicans, blamed state and local officials for not making the evacuation mandatory sooner despite warnings from weather forecasters and federal government officials.

"We did it [the evacuation] masterfully," Blanco insisted. She said without the evacuation, 68,000 people would have died, not the 1,100 who actually perished. "We're not going to be accused of not doing the evacuation," she added, forcefully.

President Bush requested about $17 billion for hurricane relief for the Gulf region. Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., has offered a proposal for $35 billion. The proposal is to be attached to the bill to fund the Defense Department, and negotiators are currently trying to settle differences in that bill and come up with a common figure for hurricane relief.

Members of the panel said Congress was reluctant to give funding without concrete plans in place about how it will be spent.

Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., pushed the panel to subpoena White House and Pentagon officials to get them to turn over communications and e-mails pertaining to the hurricane preparation and response. Melancon said White House officials have been reluctant to voluntarily give information to the panel.

The committee, on a voice vote on a substitute proposal from Rep. Harold Rogers R-Ky., decided instead to defer action on any subpoenas until it meets privately Thursday with White House officials.

House Select Committee on Hurricane Katrina Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., would then be empowered to seek subpoenas if necessary.

Blanco already has turned over 100,000 pages of documents to the committee. The hearing was called ostensibly to discuss those documents, but quickly morphed into a rehash of the response and preparation for the two hurricanes.

"It's all because the levees failed," said Blanco, who called on Congress to strengthen the levee system, restore thousands of homes destroyed by the storms, give tax incentives to businesses and families, address health care needs, and provide support for schools and students.

"If families don't feel safe, they won't come home," she said. "We experienced a structural failure of our levee system. It needs to be repaired immediately and then strengthened, so our families can come home."

But Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, said part of the problem with the levees may have been that they were not maintained properly by local officials. He suggested that Congress may not be willing to pour more money into fixing levees and floodwalls until assurances can be given that they will be properly maintained.

Blanco said there were problems that engineers are looking into at this time.