Still more poor response to Katrina.

WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the U.S. official with the power to order a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina, flew to Atlanta for a previously scheduled briefing on avian flu on the morning after the storm swept ashore.

Chertoff's decision to fly to Georgia for a business-as-usual briefing even as residents in New Orleans fought for their lives in rising floodwaters raises new questions about how much top officials knew about what was happening on the Gulf Coast and how focused they were on the unfolding tragedy.

In fact, Chertoff didn't know for sure that New Orleans' life-preserving levees had failed until a full day had passed.

And, by the way, I heard this off one of the news shows, Olberman, maybe. Apparently on the Saturday before Katrina, two days before this trip, while FEMA people were working to prepare, Chertoff was "working from home." This was followed by the inclusion that he had been in contact with the planning group "several times."

UPDATE: Here's a CNN mention Confirming Chertoff at home.

Chertoff worked from home the day Bosner first warned of the hurricane's catastrophic potential for New Orleans, CNN's Tom Foreman reported.

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