WASHINGTON (AP) – FEMA missed early warning signs that emergency response teams were unprepared to handle a catastrophic disaster like Hurricane Katrina, the head of a Senate oversight committee asserted Friday.

A management audit prepared by former FEMA Administrator Michael Brown months before the Aug. 29 storm showed that the agency had a lack of adequate and consistent situational awareness to size up emergencies, and was unable to properly control inventory and track assets, said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. The audit, she said, also showed that FEMA misunderstood standard response procedures.

“Despite this study, key problems simply were not addressed and, as a result, opportunities to strengthen FEMA prior to Katrina were missed,” she said.