I know that this is a little late in coming, seeing as Katrina hit in 2005, but I just had to say something. My first instinct was to say that Mr. Brown did an alright job for the position that he was in. I mean, FEMA wasn’t even independent at the time. When the Department of Homeland Security was formed, FEMA was assimilated into it. The focus of DHS was most definitely on “the War on Terror.” Naturally anything else, natural disasters included, would be put on the back-burner. “We’ve had these things happen in the past, we can deal with them when they come…”
So, with FEMA being sucked up by DHS, though Brown was “in Charge”, he still had to answer to Chertoff (the “CEO” of DHS. He didn’t really have the ability to do what he wanted…When the hurricane struck, Chertoff forced Brown to remain in Baton Rouge, so Brown couldn’t even call the shot in New Orleans. What was he supposed to do? I bet that if you asked him the same question a few times, he would give you a few different answers.
The first time Brown contacted the White, he said FEMA needed “help”. There weren’t any specifics. If you ask me, the term “help” is a very broad topic. Needless to say, Mr. Brown was very stressed out, and he failed to act in a number of places. He was saying that no one asked for anything specific from him, this would be from the governor and the mayor. However, FEMA had received a long list of things that were needed…
I really don’t think that Brown really knew what to to. But honestly, put yourself in his shoes, and then see if you could have done any better.
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Tags: Brown, Bureaucracy, Disaster, FEMA, Katrina
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