Editorial: More shocking FEMA e-mails

Monday, Nov. 7, 2005 | 8:37 a.m.

Even before Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi in last August, most Americans tracking the national news learned that the country was in for one of the most severe natural disasters in its history. At such a time, a reasonable assumption is that the country's top emergency manager would be giving his undivided attention to marshalling his forces so that survivors could be rescued and injuries and loss of life could be kept to a minimum.

As previously noted in this space, however, then-Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown was less than focused on his responsibility. This much was evident in e-mails released last month by a House committee investigating FEMA's agonizingly slow response to Katrina.

Those e-mails showed Brown being reluctant to accept the duty of on-site coordinator, as assigned to him by his boss, Department of Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff. They also showed him being unresponsive to urgent e-mails from a FEMA employee in New Orleans, warning him that the situation there was "beyond critical."

New e-mails released last week by the House committee shed more light on Brown's detached attitude. On Aug. 29, the day Katrina hit New Orleans, a focused Brown would have been serious, determined, in charge and in touch every minute. But included among the latest released e-mails is one showing Brown, hours after the Gulf Coast devastation had begun, joking around with a FEMA deputy after she had commented on the shirt he was wearing during a TV interview.

"I got it at Nordsstroms (sic)," Brown replied. "... Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?" This nonchalant, uncommitted tone was repeated on Sept. 2, while thousands of Gulf Coast people were anxiously awaiting rescue. Brown wrote to an acquaintance about his previous plans to leave the agency. "Last hurrah was supposed to have been Labor Day. I'm trapped now, please rescue me."

Ten days after that e-mail, a disgraced Brown resigned as director, although he remains on the payroll as a consultant. Chertoff is now casting about, trying to figure out how to get FEMA to respond in a "21st century way." Our advice: Don't wait until unqualified employees ask to quit during emergencies. Fire them, all of them, and don't keep them on as consultants.