Former FEMA Director Sidesteps Katrina Blame

Former FEMA director Michael D. Brown testified Friday that, hours before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, he called President Bush directly and told him the massive storm was going to be “a catastrophe within a catastrophe.” And the next day, with New Orleans levees collapsing, he called a senior White House aide to report “our worst nightmare” had occurred.

What Brown said he did not do was communicate with his superiors at the Department of Homeland Security, who had crucial responsibilities for launching and overseeing the federal government’s response to the rapidly unfolding tragedy. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is part of the Homeland Security Department, but Brown said he thought that talking to his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, “would have wasted my time.”

Yet members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, before which Brown testified Friday, suggested that his decision to ignore his department and its established procedures reflected exactly the kind of high-level communications breakdown that hamstrung Washington’s response to Katrina.

Lower-level Homeland Security officials who had operational responsibilities for dealing with the crisis agreed. They told the committee that they had repeatedly been hampered by lack of information from FEMA about events on the ground.

“There was a prevailing attitude from Mr. Brown that he did not want Homeland Security to interfere with any of his operations or what he was doing,” Matthew Broderick, director of operations coordination for the department, told the committee. “Mr. Brown should have picked up the telephone and called the secretary right away.”

On one level, testimony at the Senate hearing was another round in the blame game that has raged over the past months as a mountain of evidence has accumulated on the shortcomings of the government’s response to a disaster that claimed at least 1,300 lives, left tens of thousands of people homeless and inflicted billions of dollars in damage on the Gulf Coast.

But the hearing also provided graphic evidence of how personal and bureaucratic rivalries among senior administration officials had taken precedence over effective response to the emergency. Brown, for example, devoted much of his testimony to denouncing the Homeland Security Department and complaining about the fact that his agency had been made a part of it.

The department was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in an effort to coordinate the far-flung government agencies responsible for dealing with catastrophic events -- natural disasters as well as terrorism.

Saying FEMA had become a “stepchild” in a department preoccupied with terrorism, Brown said Homeland Security policies and decisions “put FEMA on a path to failure.”

With Chertoff expected to testify Tuesday, his spokesman, William “Russ” Knocke, said that the secretary would not engage in a shouting match with Brown. “We’re not interested in a point-by-point response,” he said. “We’re interested in lessons from an unprecedented storm season and applying those in a constructive way as we prepare for the next storm season.”

In his testimony, Brown asserted that he had been able to “cut through any interagency bureaucracy” by calling the White House instead of working with Homeland Security. Under questioning by members of the committee, however, Brown said that in his calls -- 30 calls to White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. or his deputy Joe Hagin -- he had not asked the White House to take specific actions. Rather, he said, his goal was to keep the White House informed of events.

Asked about what he had told a senior White House official in a call Monday, Aug. 29 -- the day Katrina hit -- Brown said, “Nothing specific, I just thought they needed to be aware.”

In one key conversation with a senior White House official just after FEMA learned the levees had failed, Brown said, he reported that “our worst nightmare” had occurred but said he did not remember if he had passed on the specific fact that the levees had failed, dooming the city.

The White House, stung by suggestions that the president might have been slow to grasp the seriousness of the crisis, released a four-page briefing paper designed to show that he had responded quickly. The White House pointed out that Sunday, Aug. 28, Bush had called Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and called for mandatory evacuation of the New Orleans area.

“He is concerned about the impact that this hurricane would have on our people. And he asked me to please ensure that there would be a mandatory evacuation,” the White House quoted Blanco as saying in a CNN news report Aug. 28.

But evacuation efforts bogged down because officials failed to provide adequate transportation and other support for thousands of poor New Orleans residents who lacked the means to move to safety. The same was true for many hospital patients and nursing home residents, some of whom died when they were trapped by the floods that swept through the city after a huge storm surge destroyed the levees.

Documents released by the committee showed that about 30 government agencies, including the National Weather Service and the Louisiana State Police Emergency Operations Center, reported levee failures Aug. 29. In a contentious session with reporters Friday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan defended the president and his staff, saying that there were conflicting reports about the levees.

During Brown’s appearance before the Senate committee, he was pressed hard by Republicans and Democrats alike.

Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said Brown may have “misled” White House aides by not asking for help when the president’s aides asked him if he had “everything he needed.”

And Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) accused Brown of failing to lead and refusing to admit errors. “You might get a more sympathetic hearing if you would confess your own sins.... The record reflects you didn’t get it.”

Brown said he resented the criticism. And Brown suggested that the president’s remarks had added to his troubles. Recalling that on the Friday after the storm hit, Bush said, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” the former FEMA chief lamented: “He called me Brownie at the wrong time. Thanks a lot, sir.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Storm watch

Reports on Hurricane Katrina beginning Aug. 29, the day of landfall (all times Eastern Standard):

8:30 a.m.: The Department of Homeland Security director for New Orleans reports that a 20-foot tidal surge has breached the levee system.

9:08 a.m.: The Transportation Security Administration reports that a levee has broken on the Industrial Canal, and heavy street flooding throughout Orleans, St. Bernard and Jefferson parishes.

10 a.m.: The National Weather Service reports levees have overtopped in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes, with a storm surge of 18 to 22 feet above normal.

10:12 a.m.: An e-mail from FEMA’s Michael Heath to other FEMA officials says, “Severe flooding in the St Bernard/Orleans parish line. Police report water level up to second floor of two story houses. People are trapped in attics. Pumps starting to fail.”

11:13 a.m.: A Homeland Security spot report announces that flooding is significant throughout the region and a levee in New Orleans has reportedly been breached, sending 6 to 8 feet of water throughout the 9th Ward.

11:51 a.m.: Heath reports in an e-mail to FEMA’s deputy director of response that the New Orleans Fire Department is reporting a 20-foot-wide breach on the Lake Pontchartrain side of the levee.

Noon: The Louisiana State Police Emergency Operations Center issues a situation report that says a 20-foot levee break occurred at the 17th Street Canal.

6 p.m.: A Homeland Security situation report says, “Preliminary reports indicate the levees in New Orleans have not been breached; however, an assessment is still pending.”

6:08 p.m.: An American Red Cross situation report e-mailed to White House and other officials says reports of flooding vary based on region, with some levees in New Orleans reportedly breached, and extensive flooding in the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish.

8:34 p.m.: The Army Corps of Engineers reports flooding in Kenner, La., and St. Bernard Parish, and that Jefferson and Orleans parishes’ pumping stations are inoperable.

9 p.m.: FEMA Director Michael D. Brown reports on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” “This is a catastrophic disaster.... I’m anticipating now that I’m going to have to prepare for housing at least tens of thousands of victims that are going to be without homes for literally months on end.”

10:05 p.m.: The Army Corps of Engineers reports significant flooding in St. Bernard Parish, with a levee on the west bank of the Industrial Canal possibly overtopped or breached.

10:30 p.m.: A Homeland Security spot report says a quarter-mile breach in a levee near the 17th Street Canal is allowing water to flow into the city, with only one of the main pumps reportedly working and up to 75% of the city underwater. It also reports “a few bodies ... seen floating in the water.”

Aug. 30, 3:15 a.m.: The U.S. Coast Guard reports, “This storm has

6 a.m.: Homeland Security reports much of downtown and east New Orleans underwater.

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Source: Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs