Michael Brown
Michael Brown
Former administrator of FEMA who resigned from his position after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Many americans blamed him for the slow response to help those in New Orleans in the aftermath of the deadly hurricane.
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth8 November 1954
CityGuymon, OK
causing communication dangerous good ground hear help inability intelligence lack lives medical others problem pull save situation teams thugs total yesterday
The total lack of communication. The inability to hear and have good intelligence on the ground about what was occurring there, ... We had to actually take teams out yesterday because of the dangerous situation they were in. That's very frustrating not only to me but those teams. Those medical teams want to help save lives and the thugs and the others that are causing the problem are actually making it more difficult. So we had to pull them out for a while. They want to go back in. They're going back in.
good ground hear inability intelligence intelligence-and-intellectuals lack total
the total lack of communications, the inability to hear and have good intelligence on the ground about what was actually occurring there.
serve totally
I serve totally at the will of the president.
across community disaster federal government inherently respond size totally whatever
It is inherently impractical, totally impractical, for the federal government to respond to every disaster of whatever size in every community across the country,
agencies assumed follow resulting
just assumed that agencies would follow up on taskings resulting from the calls.
alabama breath conditions country deep doubt homes living needs people quite recognize reporter room
I think everyone in the country needs to take a big, collective, deep breath and recognize that there are a lot of people in this state, in Mississippi and Alabama who are living under conditions that, quite frankly, I doubt any reporter in this room is living under -- no food, no water, it's hot, it's sticky, their homes have been destroyed, they don't know where they're going to go next.
disaster help katrina ongoing people
People are getting the help they need, ... This is an ongoing disaster. This disaster didn't just end when Katrina left.
bringing massive medical teams urban
We're bringing in food, water, and the medical teams and urban search-and-rescue teams to have a massive response.
homes orleans people
I surmise there are people in New Orleans who won't be able to get back to their homes for months, if ever.
hours maybe screamed
Maybe I should have screamed 12 hours earlier.
whipping
Man, 54 years old, and I've never had a whipping like this in my life.
hoping serious
I'm hoping they get serious about evacuating New Orleans,
again air asking force obviously president questions reports talked television twice watching
I talked to the president twice today, once in Crawford and then again on Air Force One. He's obviously watching the television a lot, and he had some questions about the Dome, he's asking questions about reports of breaches.
coming planned realizing worried worst
I think I told him that we were realizing our worst nightmare, that everything we had planned about, worried about, that FEMA, frankly, had worried about for 10 years was coming true.