According to a report in this morning's New York Times, it would appear that during the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, numerous emails were sent via BlackBerry from officials in New Orleans to their superiors - but resolute action on the part of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials was slow.

These emails were released on Thursday by the  U.S. Senate Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is investigating the government's respose to Katrina.

The very first of these emails was sent on Sunday afternoon August 26 by Marty Bahamonde, a Boston-based FEMA official sent down to New Orleans in advance of the storm.

The email at the top of this post  was sent via BlackBerry from Bahamonde to then-FEMA director Michael Brown.

In a subsequent email written by FEMA Press Secretary Sharon Worthy and forwarded to Bahamonde, Worthy indicates that Brown would need "much more" than 20 or 30 minutes to eat dinner in Baton Rouge, where he was located at the time.

Bahamonde's reply, sent via his BlackBerry? Follow me.


Here's what an infuriated Bahamonde tapped out on his BlackBerry: