IN dramatic and sometimes agonising terms, US disaster officials warned US President George W Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach New Orleans's levees.

America’s former disaster chief Michael Brown, who became the personification of the government’s listless response to Hurricane Katrina, said he told top officials of massive flooding in New Orleans on the day the storm howled ashore.

A combative Michael Brown blamed the Louisiana governor, the New Orleans mayor and even the Bush White House that appointed him for his agency’s dismal response to Hurricane Katrina in a fiery appearance before Congress.