US to reorganise disaster agency

Michael Chertoff spoke before a congressional committee

The US government has acknowledged that the federal agency in charge of disaster management will have to be reorganised.

The homeland security secretary admitted that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) had been overwhelmed by Hurricane Katrina.

Michael Chertoff told a US Congress committee that the procedures followed by Fema had proved inefficient.

Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, killing 1,200 people.

Mr Chertoff told the committee: "Although Fema pre-positioned significant numbers of personnel, assets and resources before the hurricane made landfall, we now know its capabilities were simply overwhelmed by the magnitude of this storm."

Preparations

His comments came as another major hurricane, named Wilma, headed for Florida.

Fema is watching the situation there closely and has urged people to make emergency preparations.

Earlier this week, a series of leaked e-mails hinted at the bureaucratic chaos inside Fema, showing officials scrambling for supplies and personnel.

Fema's then-head, Michael Brown, at one point seemed not be aware that the agency was evacuating storm victims.

The e-mails were requested by the committee investigating the crisis, and obtained by the AP news agency.

Mr Brown was forced to quit after bitter criticism of the response to Hurricane Katrina.