FEMA Chief Waited Until After Storm Hit

NewsMax ^ | September 7, 2005 | NewsMax Wires

[bobsunshine]

WASHINGTON - The government's disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the region - and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.

Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to "convey a positive image" about the government's response for victims.

Before then, FEMA had positioned smaller rescue and communications teams across the Gulf Coast. But officials acknowledged Tuesday the first department-wide appeal for help came only as the storm raged. Brown's memo to Chertoff described Katrina as "this near catastrophic event" but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, "Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities."

The initial responses of the government and Brown came under escalating criticism as the breadth of destruction and death grew. President Bush and Congress on Tuesday pledged separate investigations into the federal response to Katrina. "Governments at all levels failed," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said Brown had positioned front-line rescue teams and Coast Guard helicopters before the storm. Brown's memo on Aug. 29 aimed to assemble the necessary federal work force to support the rescues, establish communications and coordinate with victims and community groups, Knocke said.

Instead of rescuing people or recovering bodies, these employees would focus on helping victims find the help they needed, he said.

'Time for Blame'

"There will be plenty of time to assess what worked and what didn't work," Knocke said. "Clearly there will be time for blame to be assigned and to learn from some of the successful efforts."

Brown's memo told employees that among their duties, they would be expected to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public."

"FEMA response and recovery operations are a top priority of the department and as we know, one of yours," Brown wrote Chertoff. He proposed sending 1,000 Homeland Security Department employees within 48 hours and 2,000 within seven days.

Knocke said the 48-hour period suggested for the Homeland employees was to ensure they had adequate training. "They were training to help the life-savers," Knocke said.

Employees required a supervisor's approval and at least 24 hours of disaster training in Maryland, Florida or Georgia. "You must be physically able to work in a disaster area without refrigeration for medications and have the ability to work in the outdoors all day," Brown wrote.

The same day Brown wrote Chertoff, Brown also urged local fire and rescue departments outside Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi not to send trucks or emergency workers into disaster areas without an explicit request for help from state or local governments. Brown said it was vital to coordinate fire and rescue efforts.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said Tuesday that Brown should step down.

After a senators-only briefing by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other Cabinet members, Sen. Charles E. Schumer said lawmakers weren't getting their questions answered.

"What people up there want to know, Democrats and Republicans, is what is the challenge ahead, how are you handling that and what did you do wrong in the past," said Schumer, D-N.Y.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said the administration is "getting a bad rap" for the emergency response.

"This is the largest disaster in the history of the United States, over an area twice the size of Europe," Stevens said. "People have to understand this is a big, big problem."

Meanwhile, the airline industry said the government's request for help evacuating storm victims didn't come until late Thursday afternoon. The president of the Air Transport Association, James May, said the Homeland Security Department called then to ask if the group could participate in an airlift for refugees.

[M. Espinola]

"The only thing I am blaming Brown for is his complete idiocy and lack of leadership."

How dare you speak of the king in such a fashion. :)

[aShepard]

Brown's biggest mistake is that he read the NO emergency plan, and believed it. Then he called the mayor, and the govenor, and he believed them that they had things under control.

Only after the Governor got all weepy on tv, did everyone realize that the locals were a bunch of total incompetents!

[processing please hold]

It was not ALL the local and state folks.

Yes it was. The lack of response started at the top. The local and state. They *ucked up big time and they know it. They are playing the blame someone else game now and alot are falling for it.

I can't tell you the number of times my family has had to evacuate from an on coming hurricane.

The incompenentance an ineptitude starts at the top, and that's the local and state.

This issue is getting me steamed. I see so many trying to lay the blame on fema or homeland security. If the state and local government had done their jobs in the first place, we wouldn't be having this conversation now. They screwed up...

[Dane]

You mean about the Brown fan club?

And this comment comes from the President of the pelosi/hillary/MSM get Brown/Bush fan club.

[Coop]

Michael D. Brown

Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response

Michael D. Brown was nominated by President George W. Bush as the first Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response in the newly created Department of Homeland Security in January 2003. As the head of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Under Secretary Brown leads federal disaster response and recovery operations and coordinates disaster activities with more than two dozen federal agencies and departments and the American Red Cross. He also oversees the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration, and initiates proactive mitigation activities.

Additionally, Under Secretary Brown helps the Secretary of Homeland Security ensure the effectiveness of emergency responders, and directs the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Integration Center, the National Disaster Medical System and the Nuclear Incident Response Team.

Under Secretary Brown has led Homeland Security's response to more than 164 presidentially declared disasters and emergencies, including the 2003 Columbia Shuttle disaster and the California wildfires in 2003. In 2004, Mr. Brown led FEMA's thousands of dedicated disaster workers during the most active hurricane season in over 100 years, as FEMA delivered aid more quickly and more efficiently than ever before.

Previously, Mr. Brown served as FEMA's Deputy Director and the agency's General Counsel. Shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Mr. Brown served on the President's Consequence Management Principal's Committee, which acted as the White House's policy coordination group for the federal domestic response to the attacks. Later, the President asked him to head the Consequence Management Working Group to identify and resolve key issues regarding the federal response plan. In August 2002, President Bush appointed him to the Transition Planning Office for the new Department of Homeland Security, serving as the transition leader for the EP&R Division.

Prior to joining FEMA, Mr. Brown practiced law in Colorado and Oklahoma, where he served as a bar examiner on ethics and professional responsibility for the Oklahoma Supreme Court and as a hearing examiner for the Colorado Supreme Court. He had been appointed as a special prosecutor in police disciplinary matters. While attending law school he was appointed by the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee of the Oklahoma Legislature as the Finance Committee Staff Director, where he oversaw state fiscal issues. His background in state and local government also includes serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight and as a city councilman.

Mr. Brown was also an adjunct professor of law for the Oklahoma City University.

A native of Oklahoma, Mr. Brown holds a bachelor's degree in Public Administration/Political Science from Central State University, Oklahoma. He received his J.D. from Oklahoma City University’s School of Law.

---

Taken directly from his FEMA bio. An objective reader could not (with a straight face anyway) claim Mr. Brown is not qualified to lead FEMA. Many would find it difficult to present a more qualified candidate than Mr. Brown.

[Coop]

I intended to bold these areas as well. I think it's obvious that billbears and others squawking about Mr. Brown being an "idiot" or "unqualified" are either clueless or lying.

He had been appointed as a special prosecutor in police disciplinary matters. While attending law school he was appointed by the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee of the Oklahoma Legislature as the Finance Committee Staff Director, where he oversaw state fiscal issues. His background in state and local government also includes serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight and as a city councilman.

[M. Espinola]

Anyone not fully supporting Brown, right or wrong, is dumped into the Hillary the Horrible & her leftist cohorts clan? Just ducky!

[processing please hold]

You bet your ass I live in Louisiana. Do you?

I know the problems NO has had with being under sea level all my life. Have you?

You pompas ass. Fema is trying to clean up the mess the state and local government made. They made it by being incompetent.

You don't hear about Florida, or Mississippi, or Alabama in the news 24/7 now do you? Maybe that's because they had politicans that had an emergency plan and put it into action. They used their first responders. Some NO first responders were looting right beside the riff-raff. Oh, and now they are on vacation in Las Vegas they are so stressed. Yeah, stressed by carrying all their looted items. I don't remember any 9-11 first responders in NY taking vacations a few days after 9-11, do you?

I will cut them no slack, nor the state and local officials.

[billbears]

An objective reader could not (with a straight face anyway) claim Mr. Brown is not qualified to lead FEMA

Easily. At least if you're willing to look past a prepped bio. Tell me, when you write a resume do you put the best possible face on it or tell the truth? I've seen plenty of resumes that are more fluff than truth. And considering our government is filled with these sort of appointments, apparently they're good at one thing. And it's not putting the most qualified person in the position. That applies to either facet of the one party system in Washington

Many would find it difficult to present a more qualified candidate than Mr. Brown.

Perhaps someone with actual emergency management experience? Instead of a former poli sci professor and horse show coordinator. As for 'hit piece', I don't exactly see how a simple list of duties and experience from Find Law is a hit piece. Or is any factual list that doesn't coincide with Repupublican mantra now considered a hit piece?

[Coop]

Anyone not fully supporting Brown, right or wrong, is dumped into the Hillary the Horrible & her leftist cohorts clan? Just ducky!

It's no fun when people make you play by your own rules, is it? Clueless and a hypocrite! Lovely.

Dean Vernon Wormer: "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

[d-back]

If Brown were a Clinton administration official, somehow I think all this a-s-covering for him by freepers wouldn't be happening.

Worth repeating. Some Freepers think this is a "Republican Party Right or Wrong" site, when it's supposed to be a conservative site. Yet you've got purported conservatives breathlessly defending the ineptitude of an unqualified bureacrat who failed to position his bloated federal agency so it could actually perform its mission. Meanwhile, the power of the images becomes the story of New Orleans: poor, black, and powerless people desperate for water; a seven-year old with her throat slit by a thug; FEMA stopping trucks filled with food and water.

It's a political disaster for Bush, but the ardent defenders of FEMA and Brown are playing right into the hands of the Bush-hating Left.

Bush should fire "Brownie" today, and he should fire Chertoff tomorrow. He should show America that personal responsibility is a Republican Party value. Then he should nominate Janice Rogers Brown for Sandy O'Connor's seat, and put the Left on the defensive again.

[M. Espinola]

What's next, sainthood?

[Coop]

Ahh, yet another weak refernce to partisan agendas. All these references curiously come from you witch-hunting keyboard critics.

So, rather than address his impressive resume, you choose to call it a lie. Very nice.

At least when I correctly identified your hit piece as a hit piece, I was polite enough to offer something to refute it. Like qualifications.

[Coop]

defending the ineptitude of an unqualified bureacrat

He's fully qualified. Next whine.

[Dane]

Anyone not fully supporting Brown, right or wrong, is dumped into the Hillary the Horrible & her leftist cohorts clan? Just ducky!

Dude, don't give up your day job at DU.

[Coop]

Lately you can't seem to respond to anything directly. All we see are your snide little adolescent remarks. But I can't really blame you, because you have virtually nothing to back up your witch hunt. The few straws you've been desperately clutching are quickly fraying, thanks to a few people who know a bit about FEMA, government and Google.

[Not A Snowbird]

This issue is getting me steamed. I see so many trying to lay the blame on fema or homeland security. If the state and local government had done their jobs in the first place, we wouldn't be having this conversation now. They screwed up...

Agreed. I'm too angry to post without getting myself in trouble, so it's probably best I log off for a few days.

[Coop]

Some Freepers think this is a "Republican Party Right or Wrong" site,

You're correct. But those FReepers are almost always either liberal or perpetually angry Libertarians.

[spunkets]

"To the left it's ALL about image. The facts don't matter at all.

I'm not the left and I'm only working with facts. Here's some facts about someone concerned with image. See if you can I'd the image guy.

"Never mind this is the fastest response under the worst conditions in history."

There's image and hype in that purely qualitative and subjective assesment, but I only deal with facts. I suggest you temper that response by removing the availability of tech. from your analysis and looking at the capacity of the pro emergency guys to percieve and grasp the situation, note the problems, provide solutions, improvise, and finally to "get 'er done".

"Added to the savages on the ground shooting at the rescuers."

I would have demanded Chertoff send the ATF down to crack down on all those paperwork violators.

"How come you didn't rush down there and make it all better.

These things are better addressed beforehand. Nevertheless, no one put in a request.

" You could have brought order to the Convention Center and the Superdome, no doubt about it."

Sure. The management facilitated and caused the problems in the dome. Prevention beats addressing failures later.