WASHINGTON – The head of the federal disaster relief agency said Friday
it's "heartbreaking and very, very frustrating" to witness the virtual
anarchy in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans and defended the Bush
administration's response.
Interviewed on several network morning news shows, Michael Brown,
director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, blamed emergency
assistance delivery problems on "the total lack of communications, the
inability to hear and have good intelligence on the ground about what
was actually occurring there."
Brown appeared the morning after the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin,
charged that administration officials "don't have a clue" about what's
going on in the devastated city that long has been among the nation's
premier tourist attractions.
"People are getting the help they need," Brown asserted on NBC's "Today"
show. "This is an ongoing disaster. This disaster didn't just end when
Katrina left."
But Brown also acknowledged that little in the government's preparedness
plan took into account the likelihood of lawlessness in such dire
straits.
"Before the hurricane struck I came down here personally and rode the
storm out in Baton Rouge," he said. "We had all of our rescue teams, the
medical teams, pre-deployed, ready to go. ... The lawlessness, the crime
that is occurring, did surprise us."
Appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America," the FEMA director said he
"never thought I'd see" the lawlessness that has overtaken the city and
interrupted emergency relief efforts. "It's heartbreaking and very, very
frustrating to me from a broad operational perspective," he said.
"What we have right now is a situation where, with my having access to
the military, bringing in the National Guard troops, securing the area,
we'll be able to continue the relief efforts that we have been doing
over the last several days," Brown added. "We'll be able to ramp those
up and continue the evacuation."
Asked about the difficulty in getting sufficient supplies of food, water
and medicine for the victims who need it, Brown conceded on NBC: "That's
a frustrating issue for me ... You know, I could sit here and read off
all the stats (of supplies furnished) ... We've provided food to people
... It's just a massive process ... to take care of every single one of
those individuals."
Brown refused to be drawn into a debate about whether the administration
and the White House should be faulted for a lack of work to upgrade
flood levees there in recent years. "I'm focused on lifesaving efforts,"
he said.
Brown also said that he had talked daily with President Bush about the
federal response and said "I have every thing I need to ramp this up and
do what I have to do to secure New Orleans – get people out of here and
start that recovery process."
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