We’ve Seen FEMA Unprepared Before. It Didn’t End Well.
Chaos, cutbacks and inexperience at FEMA are amplifying the risk of another tragically flawed response to a natural disaster like the one to Hurricane Katrina.
Not so great.
Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Twenty years ago this September, President George W. Bush praised how his Federal Emergency Management Agency director, Michael Brown, was responding to Hurricane Katrina. “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” he infamously declared.
Less than two weeks later, Brownie was no longer doing any kind of job because FEMA had actually made a hash of preparing for and reacting to Hurricane Katrina, putting lives at risk and hobbling New Orleans’ recovery. Bush’s approval ratings, already sinking because of the increasingly disastrous Iraq war, took another permanent hit as voters deemed his management of the homefront another failure.