Disfunction and Disarray

"My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional." Michael Brown, FEMA Director during Katrina response
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Really, Brownie? You had everything else sorted out, except for the disfunction of the state of Louisiana? Everything taken care of, nice and clean?

As Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans on Aug. 29, Michael D. Brown, then director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, appeared confused over whether Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had put him in charge, senior military officials could not reach Brown and his team became swamped by the speed of the unfolding disaster, according to e-mails to and from Brown.
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The e-mails also show that the government's response plan, two years in the making, began breaking down even before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Before the storm hit, Brown's deputy chief of staff, Brooks Altshuler, said White House pressure to form an interagency crisis management group was irrelevant, even though a task force and principal federal officer are key parts of the plan.

"Let them play their raindeer games as long as they are not turning around and tasking us with their stupid questions. None of them have a clue about emergency management," Altshuler told Brown and Brown's chief of staff, Patrick Rhode.

The documents offer a glimpse of the disarray in preparations for and the response to Katrina, for which FEMA has been widely criticized. A misunderstanding of national disaster plan roles, communications failures, delayed decision-making and absent voices of leadership mark the documents, which came as a partial response by FEMA's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, to a request by a House select investigative committee.

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The documents show a quick breakdown in communications after the hurricane hit Aug. 29. With telephone and wireless reception spotty, FEMA's operations center resorted to e-mailing Brown the next afternoon to ask him to call Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon R. England.

As late as Sept. 1, the head of the military's Hurricane Katrina Task Force, Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, was unable to reach Brown and asked FEMA officials to track down his satellite phone.

"He [Honore] wants to speak with Mike very badly," FEMA aides wrote at 1 p.m. Three hours later, the reply came from a Brown aide: "Not here in [Mississippi.] Is in [Louisiana], as far as I know."

The first FEMA request to the Defense Department was not reported in Brown's e-mails until 10 a.m. on Sept. 2 -- nearly three days later -- seeking "full logistical support to the Katrina disaster in all [emergency] declared states."

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) requested 40,000 U.S. troops on Aug. 31.

It's not that we're upset with you, Brownie. It clearly wasn't your fault. Nobody, except for you, ever actually that that you could handle such a huge disaster, which is why an equestrian judge overseer [who was fired] was hired for the job. And clearly, nobody thought you ever would have to deal with such a frightening problem, which is why the rest of our moronic government stripped FEMA of all funding.

But at least you had everything sorted out. Nice and orderly. I'm glad people were able to get in touch with you regularly, just like you testified. I'm glad you understood your role so clearly, just like you testified. I'm glad that our President hired such a clean-cut, organized, willful individual; and that he didn't hesitate at all, and stemmed what would have been a socially devastating crisis from devolving into madness.

I mean, ha! If you and he weren't so organized and swift in your response, that little hurricane called Katrina would have been just a nightmare! Phew! Crisis averted!