Bush didn't speak during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: ''We are fully prepared.''
The footage - along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press - show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.
Linked by secure video, Bush expressed a confidence on Aug. 28 that starkly contrasted with the dire warnings his disaster chief and numerous federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm.
A top hurricane expert voiced ''grave concerns'' about the levees and then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown told the president and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren't enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome.
''I'm concerned about . . . their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe,'' Brown told his bosses the afternoon before Katrina made landfall.
The White House and Homeland Security Department urged the public Wednesday not to read too much into the video footage. ''I hope people don't draw conclusions from the president getting a single briefing,'' presidential spokesman Trent Duffy said, citing a variety of orders and disaster declarations Bush signed before the storm made landfall.
''There's nothing new or insightful on these tapes,'' Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke added. ''We actively participated in the lessons-learned review and we continue to participate in the Senate's review and are working with them on their recommendation.''
Video footage of the Aug. 28 briefing, the final one before Katrina struck, showed an intense Brown voicing concerns from the government's disaster operation center.
''We're going to need everything that we can possibly muster, not only in this state and in the region, but the nation, to respond to this event,'' Brown warned. He called the storm ''a bad one, a big one'' and implored federal agencies to cut through red tape to help people, bending rules if necessary. ''Go ahead and do it,'' Brown said. ''I'll figure out some way to justify it. . . . Just let them yell at me.''
In the video, Bush appears from a narrow, windowless room at his ranch in Texas. He doesn't ask questions.
