Katrina 'overwhelmed us'
2005-09-28 08:03
Washington - A combative Michael Brown blamed the Louisiana governor, the New Orleans mayor and even the Bush White House that appointed him for his agency's dismal response to Hurricane Katrina in a fiery appearance before Congress.
In response, lawmakers alternately lambasted and mocked the former Federal Emergency Management Agency director.
House members' searing treatment of Brown, in a hearing that stretched nearly six hours, underscored how he has become a symbol of the deaths, lingering floods and stranded survivors after the August 29 storm. Brown resigned September 12, three days after being relieved of his onsite command response effort.
At several points, Brown face turned red and he slapped the table in front of him.
"So I guess you want me to be the superhero, to step in there and take everyone out of New Orleans," Brown said.
'Do your job'
"What I wanted you to do is do your job and co-ordinate," Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut retorted.
Brown acknowledged mistakes during the storm and subsequent flooding that devastated the Gulf Coast, but he accused New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, both Democrats, of fostering chaos and failing to order a mandatory evacuation more than a day before Katrina hit.
"My biggest mistake was not recognising by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional," Brown told a special panel set up by House of Representatives Republican leaders to investigate the catastrophe. Most Democrats, seeking an independent investigation, stayed away to protest what they called an unfair probe of the Republican administration by lawmakers from the same party.
"I very strongly personally regret that I was unable to persuade Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down, get over their differences and work together," Brown said. "I just couldn't pull that off."
Brown also said he warned Bush, White House chief of staff Andrew Card and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin that "this is going to be a bad one" in e-mails and phone conversations before the storm. Under pointed questioning, he said some needs outlined to the White House, Pentagon and Homeland Security Department were not answered in "the timeline that we requested."
Blanco vehemently denied that she waited until the eve of the storm to order an evacuation of New Orleans. She said her order came on the morning of August 27 - two days before the storm - and resulted in 1.3 million people evacuating the city.
"Such falsehoods and misleading statements, made under oath before Congress, are shocking," Blanco said in a statement.
In New Orleans, Nagin said that "it's too early to get into name-blame and all that stuff," but that "a Fema director in Washington trying to deflect attention is unbelievable to me."
Brown rejected accusations that he was inexperienced for the job, which he held for more than two years and oversaw 150 presidentially declared disasters.
"We were prepared but overwhelmed is the best way I can put it," he said.
Brown described Fema as a politically powerless arm of Homeland Security, which he said had siphoned more than $77m from his agency during the past three years. Additionally, he said Homeland Security cut Fema budget requests, including one for hurricane preparedness, before they were presented to Congress.
- AP