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Pre-Katrina study exposed FEMA woes

Set to testify, former director says 'our logistics just sucked'

From Jeanne Meserve and Mike Ahlers
CNN

Michael Brown defended FEMA's Katrina response before a House panel in September.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An independent study warned of managerial and logistical weaknesses at the Federal Emergency Management Agency months before its heavily criticized response to Hurricane Katrina.

The 2005 study by the Mitre Corp., obtained by CNN, warned of unclear lines of communication within FEMA; a dearth of top-level emergency management expertise; low morale; and a lack of manpower, training and money.

Then-FEMA director Mike Brown commissioned the study because, he recently told Senate investigators, he recognized the agency had problems responding to the 2004 hurricanes in Florida, even though FEMA was generally praised for its work.

"I wanted to find out what was causing those glitches and those problems so we could fix it, so that we really could live up to the reputation that we had, because behind the curtain, it wasn't all that pretty," Brown told Senate investigators in remarks obtained by CNN. "I mean, our logistics just sucked. It was awful."

Mitre Corp. interviewed top-level FEMA officials in early 2005, and last March presented Brown with an analysis that included his colleagues' frank opinions of FEMA's capabilities.

Among the comments in the report:

"No one's in charge. Everybody's in charge."

"The political appointees don't understand business, can't made [sic] policy decisions, and are driven by politics and the latest news clips."

"If the White House asks, 'Where are the water trucks?' I can't tell them."

Brown will appear Friday before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which is investigating the government's response to Katrina. Brown told Senate investigators he agreed with many of the criticisms in the Mitre report, but said there were numerous roadblocks to change.

Among them, he said, were the constant distractions of Department of Homeland Security reorganizations, a lack of manpower and money, the day-to-day mission of responding to disasters and bureaucratic inertia.

"I mean, that's turning this huge ship while someone is trying to push back [in] the other direction," he said.

Asked if he wished he had acted upon some of Mitre's recommendations, Brown responded, "Absolutely."

"What I wish I had done was, frankly, just either quit earlier or whatever and gone to certain friends that I can't talk about and said we got to fix this," he said.

FEMA, he said, had become "fairly dysfunctional" within the Department of Homeland Security.

Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast August 29, killing more than 1,200 people. Brown resigned days later amid intense criticism of FEMA's response to the disaster.

In testimony before a House committee in September, Brown said, "My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday [August 27] that Louisiana was dysfunctional." (Full story)

Last month, the Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate committee accused the White House of instructing federal agencies to limit their cooperation with the investigation.

Chairman Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut wrote to the White House complaining that most of the Katrina documents the panel requested had not been provided.

The White House subsequently released additional documents, and a spokesman said the release of some 15,000 documents demonstrated a high level of cooperation with the inquiry.

Lieberman said that FEMA has been helpful but that Brown had refused to answer even the simplest questions in interviews with staff investigators, including those about any conversations with high level White House officials. (Full story)

Comments attributed to Brown's lawyer on Wednesday indicated a change in his client's approach.

"Mr. Brown is going to testify before Congress. If he receives no guidance to the contrary, we'll do as any citizen should do -- and that is to answer all questions fully, completely and accurately," Andrew Lester told The Associated Press.

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