Michael Brown

Michael Brown   (Lawyer, radio personality)
Born	Michael DeWayne Brown 1954-11-08 Guymon, Oklahoma
Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency  In office April 15, 2003 - September 12, 2005 Emailed "Can I quit now? Can I go home?" the day Hurricane Katrina struck.

Russ Baker opined in 2006 that "Michael Brown will forever remain the poster child for federal incompetence." He was listed as #5 on a list of top 43 Appointees Who Helped Make Bush The Worst President Ever.

Career

His appointment as FEMA director came as a shock to outside observers, but Brown has already claimed that if George W. Bush became US President, then he would be getting a big job in the federal government.

FEMA director

When submitting documents in advance of his appointment as FEMA director, Brown omitted legal cases that should have disbarred him and mendaciously presented his experience to overstate its value. This falsification notwithstanding, he was still outstandingly underqualified.

Hurricane Frances

In 2004, FEMA disbursed $30 million in disaster relief funds for Hurricane Frances to residents of Miami, Florida, where damage from Hurricane Frances was minimal. Brown admitted to $12 million in overpayments, but denied any serious mistakes, blaming a computer glitch. After investigating, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel wrote that Brown was responsible and called for him to be fired.

In January 2005, Robert Wexler publicly urged George W. Bush to fire Brown, citing the Sun-Sentinel 's report. Wexler repeated his call in April to Michael Chertoff, citing new reports that FEMA sent inspectors with criminal records of robbery and embezzlement to do damage assessments.

Hurricane Katrina

Full article: Hurricane Katrina

On the day Katrina struck, Brown Emailed "Can I quit now? Can I go home?" He later quipped to a friend on September 2 that he could not meet her because he was "trapped [as FEMA head] ... please rescue me."

On August 29, 2005, five hours after the hurricane hit land, Brown made his first request for Homeland Security rescue workers to be deployed to the disaster area only after two days of training. He also told fire and rescue departments outside affected areas to not provide trucks or emergency workers without a direct appeal from state or local governments in order to avoid coordination problems and the accusation of overstepping federal authority.

On September 1, 2005, Brown told Soledad O'Brien of CNN that he was unaware that New Orleans' officials had housed thousands of evacuees, who quickly ran out of food and water, in the Convention Center — even though major news outlets had been reporting on the evacuees' plight for at least a day. He also criticized those that were stuck in New Orleans as those "who chose not to evacuate, who chose not to leave the city" (disobeying a mandatory evacuation order).

On September 2, 2005, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley stated that he pledged firefighters, police officers, health department workers, and other resources on behalf of the city, but was only asked to send one tank truck.

Gail Collins, at the time editor of The New York Times‍ '​ editorial page, called Michael Brown "legendary as a disaster in his own right", and on Thanksgiving week in 2005, Brown was No. 1 on CNN's "Political Turkey of the Year" list for his handling of Katrina.

Legacy

On August 28, 2007, John Edwards proposed what he called "Brownie's Law" requiring that "qualified people, not political hacks", lead key federal agencies.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Halifax International Security Forum/2019	22 November 2019	24 November 2019	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada
Herzliya Conference/2009	2 February 2009	4 February 2009	Israel Tel Aviv Reichman University

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