President Bush angrily demanded a fire he spotted in flood-ravaged New Orleans from aboard Air Force One be put out immediately, according to excerpts of a new book attacking top government officials for the confusion following Hurricane Katrina.
“The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” by Douglas Brinkley, also describes New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s hesitation to order a mandatory evacuation as Katrina approached and the emotional strain that appeared to take its toll on the politician afterward.
A Nagin aide said Wednesday the mayor did not intend to respond to the various assertions, saying only that “he was there and Mr. Brinkley wasn’t and that was pretty much going to be his only statement.”
The excerpts appear in the June issue of Vanity Fair.
Brinkley, an author and historian at Tulane University, quotes U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat, describing Bush viewing the damage from aboard Air Force One five days after the storm. He said Bush asked Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff about a fire in the city.
‘Put the fire out, now!’
Chertoff explained that fire departments were struggling in the aftermath of the hurricane and having difficulty extinguishing blazes because water pressure was too low.
“Put the fire out, now! There is water everywhere. I want the fire out,” Bush was quoted as yelling.
The Aug. 29 hurricane killed 1,300 people along the Gulf Coast, and triggered breaches in the New Orleans levees.
As floodwater damaged 80 percent of the city and thousands of displaced residents sought rescue and shelter, local, state and federal officials failed to communicate effectively, botching the initial response.
In the excerpts, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco describes Nagin as “a total void” during the crisis, and recalls a meeting aboard Bush’s plane in which Nagin “lost his temper” and slammed his hand on a table, demanding a chain of command be established to kick-start the stumbling rescue operation.
“It was bizarre,” Blanco is quoted as saying. “Nagin was falling apart.”
Nagin, who just announced a new evacuation plan for the 2006 hurricane season, is campaigning for re-election against Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu in a May 20 runoff.