US: The disaster-response system of the US faces major changes following harsh criticism by Congress of the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.
A 600-page report on the disaster published tomorrow by a Republican congressional committee will blame all levels of government, from the White House to the mayor of New Orleans.
"Our investigation revealed that Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare.
"At every level - individual, corporate, philanthropic and governmental - we failed to meet the challenge that was Katrina. In this cautionary tale, all the little pigs built houses of straw," a draft of the report says.
The committee, which is entirely made up of Republicans because Democrats refused to join, says the White House was informed on the day Katrina hit that the levees in New Orleans had been breached even though the president claimed he only heard the next day.
"If the levees breached and flooded a large portion of the city, then the flooded city would have to be completely evacuated. Any delay in confirming the breaches would result in a delay in the post-landfall evacuation of the city," the report says.
The committee said the Bush administration's response to Katrina, which killed 1,400 people, raises serious questions about the preparedness of the US for a terrorist attack. "If this is what happens when we have advance warning, we shudder to imagine the consequences when we do not. Four and a half years after 9/11, America is still not ready for prime time."
The report says the entire disaster could have been foreseen, and that homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff should have set up a high-level emergency response team two days before the storm hit.
Former federal disaster chief Michael Brown told senators last week that Mr Chertoff regarded natural disaster relief as a "stepchild" in his department and was only interested in terrorist threats.
Mr Chertoff yesterday rejected the criticism, and insisted that there was not a "huge difference" between dealing with terrorist threats and natural disasters.
However, Mr Chertoff announced major changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), including the creation of a 1,500-strong full-time emergency response force and a new system to ensure that disasters are reported immediately.
Trucks carrying food, water, ice, blankets and other emergency supplies will be tracked by satellite to ensure they arrive at disaster sites quickly and with enough equipment. FEMA employees will go to shelters to register victims for aid, rather than expecting victims to register by phone or internet.
Meanwhile the Justice Department said yesterday that 212 people have been charged with fraud related to the Gulf Coast hurricanes, mostly for trying to receive emergency aid to which they were not entitled.
Two government audits published yesterday found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under FEMA's emergency cash assistance programme - which included the $2,000 debit cards given to evacuees - were based on duplicate or invalid social security numbers, or false addresses and names.
"FEMA has a substantial challenge in balancing the need to get the money out quickly to those who are actually in need and sustaining public confidence in disaster programs by taking all possible steps to minimise fraud and abuse," the government accountability office said.