How now, Brown scapegoat? Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff testified yesterday before the House Select Committe on Katrina, and ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown came out the worse for it. If that’s possible.
Committee members were were much less critical and argumentative in questioning Chertoff than when former FEMA Director Michael Brown appeared before them Sept. 27.
Chertoff defended the government’s emergency response: “I don’t think it was a lack of a sense of urgency or complacency,” he said. “If there was a lack, it may have been in some better planning that should have been done in terms of our general capability for dealing with catastrophes.”
Chertoff said he and President Bush “were deeply and personally engaged” both before and after the hurricane hit.
Chertoff acknowledged problems with the immediate response, but laid it at Brown’s feet, noting that Brown was the government’s “battlefield commander on the ground” in charge of preparation and response to Katrina.
For his part, Brown had told the committee he suspected that the Louisiana state emergency operations center was dysfunctional the day the hurricane hit. However, Chertoff said Brown never told him of that concern.
Brown told the committee Sept. 27 that he decided not to tell Chertoff. “I had confidence in my people down there, that it was just a matter of getting into a battle rhythm,” he testified. “Sorry. I obviously messed that one up.”
Chertoff told the committee he disagreed with Brown’s assessment that Louisiana’s response was dysfunctional. “I don’t endorse those views,” he said. “I did not have a problem dealing with state and local officials.”
Chertoff said when he asked Brown the day before Katrina hit if he needed help with preparations or response, Brown told him everything was fine. Chertoff also said he called the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Sunday and they assured him everything was set. He did not discuss the issue of evacuation with the governors.
On Monday after the hurricane hit and New Orleans was under water, however, Chertoff said he could not reach Brown. He said he and DHS Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson did not reach Brown until shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday. “I made it clear to him that I needed to be sure that he was going to personally be on top of the situation from Baton Rouge,” Chertoff said.
Tuesday night Chertoff designated Brown the “principal federal official” for Hurricane Katrina.
Chertoff said that communications improved and he was able to stay in touch with Brown, but he became “very troubled, really distressed” by images on television and reports from the field.
“I found myself both with a concern about the degree of the accuracy of the picture I was getting, because I was getting conflicting information, and also a concern about whether we were moving forward in a sufficiently urgent and disciplined manner,” Chertoff said.
A “heightened sense of frustration” eventually led Chertoff to question whether Brown was getting the job done, he told the committee. Chertoff said that by the sixth day of response operations, he began to consider naming Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen to replace Brown. Allen was named the principal federal official the next week. Brown was told to go back to Washington, where he eventually resigned under mounting criticism of how FEMA handled the hurricane.
“It was enormously frustrating to me,” Chertoff said. “I became angry sometimes. Certainly, as the hours rolled on between Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, I pushed harder and harder about why some things weren’t moving.
“I still don’t know the full story about why some things didn’t move, and I’ll look forward to hearing the answer to that,” Chertoff added.
The committee is under a congressional mandate to issue a report on its findings by Feb. 15.
Edited from a report on GovExec.com.
on c-span there was a broadcast where a number of community leaders and citizes addresed the house select committe for katrina and i was wondering where i could get a transcript of the session or if i could get a list of members that reside on that committe! i thank you for you cooperation reguarding this question.