The White House: President Bush yesterday promised the US government would do everything possible to alleviate the chaos and suffering that has enveloped New Orleans and the Gulf coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but acknowledged that federal and local authorities had not been prepared for the catastrophe.
As efforts continued to evacuate the flood-stricken city, which has been wracked by looting and other crime, Mr Bush said: "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
He told ABC News that they had anticipated a serious storm.
Mr Bush said the scale of the catastrophe could exceed that of September 11th, 2001. "The aftermath is going to be just as serious in both cases," he said.
"New Orleans is more devastated than New York was and just as physically devastated, as is the coast of Mississippi. So we've got a lot of work to do."
For a country that has spent the four years since September 11th preparing for another terrorist attack, the failure to mitigate such an enormous natural disaster is likely to set off a new debate over US preparedness.
Emergency management officials in Louisiana had warned for years that New Orleans would be unable to withstand such a big hurricane, but funding for plans to strengthen the levees and prevent floods had declined by almost half in the past four years.
The White House said the president would tour the disaster zones today. - (Financial Times service)