AP: White House compared overtopping to breaches

Ron Brynaert
Published: March 8, 2006

Although many critics on the right have been harshly criticizing a recent Associated Press article for 'misreporting' that President Bush, despite stating otherwise, had been warned that Hurricane Katrina might breach levees, the A.P. fires back by using the White House's own 'lessons learned' review, RAW STORY has found.

Late Friday night, the Associated Press issued a clarification to their March 1 story, after being attacked by many on the right for initially reporting "federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees" when the released partial transcripts to the leaked video only specifically mentioned "overtopping."

But the A.P. cites a report issued by the White House called "The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned" which compares the two terms.

"Overtopping is a term used to describe the situation where the water level rises above the height of the levee or floodwall and consequently overtops, or flows over the structure. A breach is a break in the levee or floodwall. A prolonged overtopping can actually cause a levee or floodwall breach," the review said.

"In general, a breach can lead to more significant flooding than an overtopping since breaches take time to repair and until repaired continue to allow water to flow until the water level has receded below the height of the breach. Overtopping, on the other hand, will stop as soon as the water level recedes below the top of the levee or floodwall."

"Although the consequences are significantly different, from outward appearances, it is often difficult to differentiate a breach from an overtopping," the report said.

In addition, the A.P. article also refer to interviews with officials from the Corps of Engineers and former FEMA chief Michael D. Brown to show that the debate over the two terms is more of "a matter of semantics."

According to A.P., Brown told a Denver radio station on Monday, "I can tell you everyone involved in that videotape and in my conversations with the president and with the chief of staff, our concern was always the breach of the levees."

Excerpts from the article, "Tapes Refresh Debate Over Katrina, Levees," by Tom Raum:
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But civil engineers understand that once a levee is "topped," floodwaters can rapidly erode the structural base of the levee and nearly always result in a breach, according to AP interviews with officials from the Corps of Engineers and others.

The White House's own "lessons learned" review of the federal response issued last month compared overtopping to a breach of a levee.
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In a document it called "Setting the Record Straight," the White House said Bush's Aug. 28 videoconference "was open to the press and the full transcript of this videoconference was released to Congress and the public in the fall of 2005."

However, only the opening portion of the conference, where Bush made brief remarks, was witnessed by a small news media pool. And full transcripts of that and other sessions were not released by either the administration or Congress.

Brown said Bush and other top officials knew from those briefings there was a serious chance that New Orleans' levees would be breached. "Everybody else knew and clearly on our conference calls it was being discussed," Brown said in a March 1 interview with The Associated Press.
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The federal "Lessons Learned" report can be read at this link.

Link Here

Sidney Blumenthal Bush: A Deaf Man Spouting

Bush listens to disaster officials inform him that the storm will be unprecedented in its severity and consequences. "This is, to put it mildly, the big one," says Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, warns: "This hurricane is much larger than Hurricane Andrew ever was." Bush asks not a single question, says, "We are fully prepared," and departs.

Link Here