Bush takes the blame

2005-09-13 18:20

Washington - US President George W Bush on Tuesday said he took responsibility for the federal government's slow response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capabilities at all levels of government.

"And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush told a White House news conference.

"I want to know what went right and what went wrong," he added.

Bush spoke a day after the head of the federal emergency management agency (Fema), Michael Brown, resigned following a torrent of attacks on his performance after the August 29 superstorm that devastated New Orleans and the surrounding region.

The president said the authorities had to find out how capable it is of responding to a natural disaster of Katrina's size or a new September 11 attack.

"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack or another severe storm?" said Bush.

"And that's a very important question. It's in our national interest that we find out exactly what went on and - so we can better respond."

"One thing's for certain," he added.

"Having been down there three times and having seen how hard people are working, I'm not going to defend the process going in, but I will defend the people on the front line of saving lives.

"Those coast guard kids pulling people out of the floods did heroic work.

"The first responders on the ground whether they be state folks or local folks did everything they could."

- AFP