CREW:

CREW just released a new blockbuster report: The Best Laid Plans: The Story of How the Government Ignored Its Own Gulf Coast Hurricane Plans.

Best Laid Plans details the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) plan to respond to a hurricane of Katrina's magnitude and, very importantly, FEMA's subsequent failure to implement that plan. The full report can be found here.

Shortly after Katrina struck, on September 7, 2005, CREW sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), of which FEMA is a component, seeking records related to the federal government's long-term planning for a hurricane on the Gulf Coast as well as its immediate preparations for and response to Hurricane Katrina.

The Best Laid Plans is based on the 7,500 records DHS provided in response. What we found is disturbing -- and dangerous.