ex-FEMA Director: Not My Fault

[MegaRock]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/...own/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In sometimes heated testimony before a congressional committee Tuesday, former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown blamed Louisiana's leaders for dragging their heels last month as Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast.

Brown faced sharp questions during a House select committee probing the federal, state and local response to Katrina. The storm devastated Mississippi coastal towns and left most of New Orleans flooded when the city's protective levees failed at several points.

Brown said Mississippi and Alabama had evacuated properly but that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco were reluctant to order an evacuation. (Watch Congressmen grill Brown -- 4:40)

"My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday [August 27] that Louisiana was dysfunctional," he said in his opening testimony.

Later, he testified, "My mistake was in recognizing that, for whatever reasons, ... Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco were reticent to order a mandatory evacuation."

Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation on August 28, a day before the storm made landfall.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday about Brown's comments, Nagin said the former FEMA chief was trying to deflect attention.

"I don't know what he's referring to," Nagin said, adding that "obviously, Mr. Brown is maybe under a lot of pressure. I feel sorry for him."

Brown resigned on September 12 as Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response after two weeks of intense criticism of FEMA's response to Katrina and questions about his qualifications to lead the agency.

In a heated exchange, Rep. Christopher Shays questioned whether Brown did enough to coordinate the response.

"What would you like for me to do, congressman?" Brown asked the Connecticut Republican.

"That's why I'm happy you left," Shays said, "because that kind of, you know, look in the lights like a deer, tells me that you weren't capable to do the job."

Brown said he wasn't a dictator and couldn't make state or local officials do anything.

"I guess you want me to be the superhero that is going to step in there and suddenly take everybody out of New Orleans," he said.

"No, what I wanted you to do was do your job of coordinating," Shays responded.

Pelosi blasts 'whitewash'
Democrats have refused to appoint members to the committee in protest and continue to call for an independent investigation.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California on Tuesday referred to the proceedings as "a whitewash committee hearing."

The committee invited four Democrats to sit in on the hearings, and three accepted: Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi and Rep. Charlie Melancon of Louisiana.

Jefferson and Taylor were present; Melancon's staff said he would be there after a tour of the hurricane damage.

The Democratic congressmen will not have any voting privileges and are not present in an official capacity.

Brown is still being paid as a consultant to help FEMA assess what went wrong.

He's being paid to figure out he fucked up, lied on his resume and never had any training or background on disaster prepardness or delaing with such disasters? The entire committee is being dealt with and only voting rights to the GOP? Fuck our government is stupid.

*EDIT: added url to original article, please try to give credit to the author by providing a link. Thanks, -KXRM*

[rockouthippie]

You can't blame Brown alone, he had a lot of bungling help, including Louisiana government itself.

"I guess you want me to be the superhero that is going to step in there and suddenly take everybody out of New Orleans"

and some bad decisions by the people of New Orleans too.

I don't think anyone could have forseen that so many people would elect to stay.

I would have took one look at the weather channel and "beat feet".

[d0rk]

I'm not blaming him alone, but the man should have never held the position. Now, when we have an equestrian crisis then he can strut his shit.

[CaboWaboAddict]

As I said before, Louisiana ordered a mandatory evacuation, then didn't enforce it. That is not Brown's fault. The blame lays solely on the governor and mayor. EOS!

[rockouthippie]

I think this is a case that it's much easier to blame an appointed bureaucrat, than the politicians.

What was Brown supposed to do?. Order the army and national guard to forcibly evacuate the place?.

FRANKLY, I DON'T WANT FEMA TO HAVE THAT SORT OF POWER!.

And it doesn't.

Yeah, maybe he wasn't the most qualified, but FEMA is supposed to work for the states, not the other way around.

This is like asking the tail to wag the dog.

What is the method for a soldiers persuasion?. Only his M16/A2 assault rifle, and some tear gas. What are you going to do?. Order them to start shooting and gassing civilians for non-compliance with the evacuation order?.

I think if you stayed there, you can hardly gripe that help was slow.

[MegaRock]

One of the main blame points came during an interview with Brown the Friday after the storm hit in which he was asked if he did or didn't know about all of these people at the convention center. He said 'No, I had no idea people were there' even though it had been all over TV all week long.

Theres alot of blame to be held by alot of people but that was the clearest point that this man had no business in this job.

Showing the government is still inept Brown is still being paid under his head of FEMA contract - to find out what went wrong.

I tell you what went wrong - Washington appointed someone with no disaster response background at all.

Indeed, next time we have a horse emergency Brown is the man. He was never qualified for the job and sure as hell shouldn't still be getting paid taxpayer money to do it.

What can Brown do for you? Obviosuly not much.

[CaboWaboAddict]

Originally posted by rockouthippie
What is the method for a soldiers persuasion?. Only his M16/A2 assault rifle, and some tear gas. What are you going to do?. Order them to start shooting and gassing civilians for non-compliance with the evacuation order?.

If need be. I would first enforce the martial law and mandatory evacuation order by cuffing and dragging. Then escalate to tear-gas, then rubber bullets.

[rockouthippie]

Originally posted by CaboWaboAddict
then rubber bullets.

If you remember the looters were firing real bullets. I wouldn't have been locked with rubber bullets, that's for sure. That's all this place needed was a fire fight.

What can Brown do for you?

A lot, if you weren't stupid enough to stay there.

[CaboWaboAddict]

Originally posted by rockouthippie
If you remember the looters were firing real bullets. I wouldn't have been locked with rubber bullets, that's for sure. That's all this place needed was a fire fight.

I'm talking before the hurricane hit. Not after the gun shops were looted.

[rockouthippie]

I think everyone was kind of busy trying to get the people that wanted to leave out.