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Weather Service Lauded for Warnings on Katrina

Posted on: Wednesday, 21 September 2005, 21:00 CDT

WASHINGTON -- Of all that went terribly wrong regarding Hurricane Katrina, one thing went terrifically right -- the National Weather Service's forecasts ahead of landfall that the storm had "unprecedented strength" and would cause massive damage, flooding and human displacement, a bipartisan group of senators said Tuesday.

As catastrophic as Katrina was, the weather service's warnings saved many lives, senators told weather officials at a committee hearing on minimizing the impact of future disasters.

But several senators said the government's hurricane warning role may be in jeopardy, and that information about Katrina's expected damage may not have reached the highest levels of the federal government.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., questioned whether Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff received the weather service's warnings in advance of Katrina's landfall, or if his information came mainly from a private company.

"If Secretary Chertoff didn't get the information, then he has the responsibility to cut through the red tape to make sure that he gets it," Nelson said at the hearing of a Senate Commerce subcommittee. "I don't know that he didn't get it."

Max Mayfield, who has been director of the National Hurricane Center for 17 years, told the panel that the weather service's warnings should be available to all levels of government.

"All of our forecasts are out there for everyone to look at," Mayfield said.

For Katrina, he said, he personally called the governors of Louisiana and Alabama on Saturday, Aug. 27, to make sure they understood the severity of the oncoming hurricane, and he participated in a briefing held by the Federal Emergency Management Agency before the storm.

Source: Omaha World - Herald

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