‘We will fail again,' FEMA ex-chief says

By Chad Previch

Published: September 21, 2007

TULSA — The country is not prepared for another Hurricane Katrina because of layers of bureaucracy, the former Federal Emergency Management Agency director told Oklahoma officials Thursday.

Michael Brown, a Guymon native and FEMA director during Katrina, told state emergency management officials to be prepared for federal responders to push them aside during the next major disaster in an attempt to prove they've learned from the deadly hurricane.

He urged them to push back and tell FEMA what is needed to work together. Brown poked fun at himself and heavily criticized the Bush administration, Louisiana officials and the media.

"As long as this administration is in ... they will so overreact that they will come into a state like Oklahoma and you will be overwhelmed,” Brown said. "That doesn't work, either. Overreaction is not a lesson learned.”

Brown, 52, spoke to more than 200 state emergency managers and state and local officials as part of the Oklahoma Emergency Management's fall conference.

Brown became deputy director of FEMA after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He became a national figure in the response to Katrina, which made landfall in August 2005.

"If there's a major disaster in this country ... and you don't correct that bureaucracy, we will fail again,” he said.

He said in Louisiana, he couldn't tell who was in charge of what and found a governor who didn't know her role.

He criticized himself for not publicly saying enough wasn't being done and resources weren't going to where they were needed.

Brown said federal officials continue to fight with leaders in Louisiana and New Orleans.

Brown remembers being compared to the captain of the Titanic. He said he laughed but then discovered the doomed ship's captain warned that the vessel would not work and it didn't have enough lifeboats.

"The captain of the Titanic, I want to meet when I get to heaven,” he said.

Today, Brown spends about 25 percent of his time speaking around the world and the rest of the time representing companies involved in homeland security or emergency preparedness. He's also working on several government-related books.

He said it's liberating not to be in the federal government.

Brown said he gets looks at airports and beat up on Internet blogs. But he said people also thank him.

"I'm standing tall,” he said. "I'm happy. My kids love me. My dog loves me. My lawyer even loves me. It's important for people to see that you really can be resilient.”

"Shame on the federal government for creating this monster that can't function ... like it used to,” he said.

Brown said the country is on a slippery slope of having the federal government take care of every disaster.

The 9/11 attacks in some ways can be blamed for the bureaucracy that greeted Americans during Katrina, Brown said. FEMA was folded into the Homeland Security Department in March 2003.

It created a wedge between the federal and state and local governments and a sentiment that preparedness was separate from response, Brown said.

Slowly, the country is realizing the importance of local emergency management and that more money is needed, Brown said.

"You're in the front lines,” he said. "It's not the feds.”

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