FEMA shifts focus on Katrina

Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- Michael D. Brown, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency who had become a symbol of the government's faltering performance in the Hurricane Katrina disaster, resigned Monday.

The White House announced the appointment of a new acting FEMA director, R. David Paulison, a career firefighter who currently is the agency's director of preparedness.

"We're going to get those people out of the shelters, and we're going to move and get them the help they need," R. David Paulison said in his first public comments since taking the job.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff introduced Paulison as the Bush administration tried to deflect criticism for the sluggish initial federal response to the hurricane and its disastrous aftermath. President Bush planned to address the nation Thursday evening from Louisiana, where he will be monitoring recovery efforts, the White House announced Tuesday.

Chertoff said that while cleanup, relief and reconstruction from Katrina is now the government's top priority, the administration would not let down its guard on other potential dangers.

"The world is not going to stop moving because we are very focused on Katrina," Chertoff said.

After Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29 and New Orleans flooded in the aftermath, Brown and his agency came off as unprepared, confused and ineffective in dealing with the aftermath of the storm.

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff relieved him last Friday of on-site responsibility for Katrina relief efforts.

"Today I resigned as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency," Brown said in a short statement. "As I told the President, it is important that I leave now to avoid further distraction from the ongoing mission of FEMA."

"There is no other government agency that reaches people in a more direct way. It has been the best job in the world to help Americans in their darkest hours," he added.

Chertoff praised Brown, saying he had managed 160 disasters "and his service in those disasters has been commended by many."

Brown "has done everything he possibly could to coordinate the federal response" in the wake of Katrina, Chertoff said in a statement, "and I personally appreciate his work and his commitment."

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, "This was Mike Brown's decision. This was a decision he made."

Reacting to the news of Brown's resignation Monday Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "I'm glad he's gone."

Continuing an offensive on the Bush administration for what he called failures in emergency response to Hurricane Katrina, Reid said Bush should have fired Brown.

Reid on Monday hastened to add that "this is not a one-person failure." He added, "The buck stops with the president, of course."

At a press conference with Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Reid re-asserted his call for an independent commission to investigate the hurricane response.

Reid and Clinton said the government had a responsibility to create an independent panel to investigate response failures to prevent future ones.

"This has nothing to do with the blame game," Reid said.

Reid called for Brown's ouster in a letter on Friday. Earlier last week Reid aides had said Reid did not intend to call for the firing, but on Friday Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said he had changed his mind after learning more about Brown's limited experience with emergency management.

Unlike Brown, Paulison has an extensive background in emergency management.

Before joining FEMA in 2001 where he has been responsible for improving state and local emergency preparedness, he had 30 years experience in fire rescue.

According to his resume, he was chief of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department where he managed a $200 million budget and 1,900 personnel and also ran Dade County's emergency management office.

Brown's departure amid rancor over his performance was in sharp contrast to the praise that the administration had accorded him earlier.

During a tour of the destruction Sept. 2, Bush turned to Brown at a news conference and said, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."