Editorial: FEMA head should resign

Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005 | 9:08 a.m.

The destructive force of Hurricane Katrina was known for a good three days before the people of New Orleans began experiencing its initial blast on Aug. 28. Also known well in advance was that New Orleans could be destroyed by such a severe storm. The city, as much as 10 feet below sea level in spots, is situated precariously between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontch- artrain. It was protected from catastrophic flooding only by aging levees, canals and pumps. Louisiana officials had repeatedly warned Congress and the White House of the danger but their requests for sufficient funding to repair the infrastructure had for years gone unmet.

Because Katrina's fatal force was demonstrated Aug. 25 as it swept across Florida and gained awesome strength over the Gulf of Mexico, because it was known as early as Aug. 26 that vulnerable New Orleans could be hit hard, and because the storm's power and direction were definitely known Aug. 27, we condemn the complete lack of preparation by the Federal Emergency Management Agency before the storm, packing 145 mph winds, struck the city of nearly 500,000 people early on Aug. 29. It is utterly dumbfounding that FEMA then went days without responding to the thousands of suffering residents along the Gulf Coast, especially in New Orleans, who had been unable, or unwilling, to respond to local evacuation orders.

President Bush, who didn't even cut short his August vacation until three days into the disaster, shares in the responsibility for the government's appalling conduct. It was plainly obvious well before the storm stuck that its destructiveness would overwhelm local authorities. Michael D. Brown, whom Bush chose to lead FEMA two years ago when the agency was folded into the Homeland Security Department, is also very much at fault. We agree with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that FEMA was a "total failure" in the disaster's first days. Reid has called for Congress to appoint an independent commission to study what went wrong.

We shouldn't have to wait for the commission's findings, however, for Brown to either resign or be fired. Brown was an attorney for FEMA before being named to head the agency. Urgently needed for that position is not a political appointee, but a person with significant hands-on experience in emergency management.