Hurricane Katrina
For eight months during the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006, the Committee investigated the circumstances surrounding Hurricane Katrina and the mass human suffering that resulted. The Committee conducted formal interviews with more than 325 witnesses, reviewed over 838,000 pages of documentation, and held 22 public hearings, with 85 additional witnesses to detail the mistakes made by government at all levels before, during, and afer the hurricane made landfall.
The result was a 737-page report entitled "Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared"
produced by Chairman Susan Collins and Ranking Member Joe Lieberman. The bipartisan report found gross dereliction of duty on the part of nearly all the agencies involved and of those in a position to lead. The Senators recommended systemic and structural changes to ensure that similar failures were not repeated.
The most significant change called for strengthening FEMA so that for the first time in its history, the agency would have the capabilities to prepare for and respond to a catastrophe the size of Katrina. The report recommended that FEMA have a broader mandate, greater resources, more qualified leadership, and greater access to the White House than it has had in the past to better prepare for and respond to national catastrophes.
