A spokesman for Ms. Blanco denied Mr. Brown's description of disarray in Louisiana's emergency response operation. "That is just totally inaccurate," said Bob Mann, the governor's communications director. "Everything that Mr. Brown needed in terms of resources or information from the state, he had those available to him."
Brownie also blames the mayor for not mandating an evacuation earlier. Brownie says he asked the president to call Mayor Nagin “and tell him to ask people to evacuate.”
"Mike, you want me to call the mayor?" the president responded in surprise, Mr. Brown said.
Brown says he relied on local resources and couldn’t establish a unified command. He claims he passed along a list of priority requests from the mayor to the state’s emergency operations center -- the job of FEMA director, it seems, is to act as a messenger -- and was surprised when none of the requests were filled.
“I am just screaming at my F.C.O., 'Where are the helicopters?'” he recalled. “Where is the National Guard? Where is all the stuff that the mayor wanted?”
It isn’t FEMA’s responsibility, in Brown’s view, to provide “stuff.” But then, it isn’t clear that Brownie understood anything about FEMA’s responsibility. Shouldn’t the Federal Emergency Management Agency be equipped to manage emergencies? Not this emergency, says Brown.
[Tuesday] night, Mr. Brown said, he called Mr. Chertoff and the White House again in desperation. "Guys, this is bigger than what we can handle," he told them, he said. "This is bigger than what FEMA can do. I am asking for help."
General Honoré appeared on Wednesday. Says Brown: “With Honoré, I have got exactly what I need.” That would be: a manager. Somebody who could take charge, command respect, and get things done. But wasn’t emergency management Brownie’s job?
Brownie admits he could have done better, but thinks he deserves a break. After all, he’d never been in a hurricane before, and didn’t know what to expect. True, hurricanes were not a significant issue during his stint with the International Arabian Horse Association, but Brownie might have considered a quicker hand-off to someone who actually knew how to manage a disaster.
Not to be overlooked: the revelation that Trent Lott interfered with the rescue effort.
There were also conflicts with the Congressional delegations that wanted resources for their offices and districts, FEMA officials said. Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi said he "resisted aggressively" a decision by Mr. Brown to dispatch a Navy medical ship to Louisiana instead of his home state.
