New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said last night he was shocked by a video showing President Bush being told the day before Hurricane Katrina hit that the city's protective levees could fail.
The tape contradicts the president's statement four days after the hurricane struck: "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.
"It surprises me that if there was that kind of awareness, why was the response so slow?" said Mr Nagin, whose city was devastated when the storm struck on August 29th and caused massive flooding.
"I have kind of a sinking feeling right now in my gut. I mean, I was listening to what people were saying, and I was believing them that they didn't know. So therefore it was an issue of a learning curve. From this tape it looks like everybody was fully aware."
The tape shows Mr Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff being told on August 28th that the hurricane could trigger breaches of the levees that protect the city, and threaten the Superdome.
The tapes were obtained by the Associated Press.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said: "The president was fully engaged and involved in meetings on the response."
The Department of Homeland Security released a transcript of an August 29th video-conference in which then-Fema director Michael Brown tells officials he had spoken twice, with the vacationing president, once while Mr Bush was at his Crawford, Texas ranch and later on Air Force One.
The Bush administration has been heavily criticised for its sluggish response to Katrina, which killed about 1,300 people along the Gulf Coast and plunged New Orleans into anarchy.