Yesterday I was wondering why Michael Brown would say he thought Katrina would be a “typical” and “standard” hurricane, when anyone watching Max Mayfield on TV last Sunday would have know that we were potentially facing a catastrophe. Turns out he didn’t even have to turn on TV. Mayfield told him personally according to the Washington Post:

While Chertoff said the levee breach that flooded New Orleans “exceeded the foresight of planners,” Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, said Brown and other top federal officials were briefed as much as 32 hours in advance of landfall that Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge was likely to overtop levees and cause catastrophic flooding.
“They knew that this one was different,” Mayfield said yesterday. “I don’t think Mike Brown or anyone else in FEMA could have any reason to have any problem with our calls. . . . They were told. . . . We said the levees could be topped.”