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E-Mail From the Edge of Disaster
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 The Center For Public Integrity, in a Freedom of Information Request has now obtained even more e-mails from FEMA director Michael Browne giving us a glipse of the mind of this "leader" during a national crisis, as well as the priorities of various elected leaders.
On the day Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, a former U.S. senator who had become a registered lobbyist was trying to get the nation's top emergency manager to schedule a meeting to complain about a no-bid contract that was heading to his client's competitor. |
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"I am certain you are overwhelmed by the situation regarding Hurricane Katrina. I apologize for bothering you at this critical time and for going directly to you about this," wrote former Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.) "I would very much appreciate being able to bring the President of Blu-Med Response Systems, Gerritt Boyle, in to meet with you as soon as your schedule permits."
The e-mail message to Michael Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, arrived only hours after the devastating storm first made landfall in the Gulf Coast, pummeling Louisiana and Mississippi with Category 3 hurricane winds.
The Center for Public Integrity obtained the documents on May 5, seven months after filing a Freedom of Information Act request. FEMA withheld additional e-mails, citing FOIA exemptions related to personnel, internal decision-making and privacy concerns.
The Center has made the documents searchable using optical character recognition (OCR) software; they can be searched using Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free program that can be downloaded online. To perform a search for a particular word, name or other text, click on the binoculars icon.
While many residents were awaiting rescue from rooftops or wading through toxic floodwaters, it was business as usual in the world of money, power and government inside the Washington beltway. Hutchinson's note was among more than 900 pages of Brown's e-mail released Friday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Center for Public Integrity.
The e-mails cover a time span that begins on Aug. 26, the Friday before the hurricane hit, and ends on Sept. 8, 10 days after the storm. Although some messages were previously released by congressional committees investigating the post-Katrina emergency response, this group of messages offers a more complete look at the actions of Brown and his inner circle while they were in the eye of what turned out to be their own media storm.
Early calm after the storm fades
By the time Katrina hit New Orleans and coastal Mississippi, Brown was already a familiar face in America's living rooms.
"I'm at HQ but down in the studio most of the rest of the a.m. ... Here we go!" Brown wrote the Saturday before the storm arrived as he prepared for a round of TV and radio interviews.
At 6:21 a.m. the Monday Katrina hit, Brown was preparing for another major round of interviews.
"Sitting in the chair, putting mousse in my hair...." he wrote to Patrick Rhode, FEMA's chief of staff.
Tuesday, after what must have been hours of TV interviews according to the press schedules included in Brown's e-mails, his inner circle was praising his performance.
"Expect a call from HQ regarding Bay St. Louis. CNN asking where's FEMA. Would like to air drop or do something there." — Michael Brown, Aug. 31 e-mail
"NOAA's chief of staff called and asked to pass along [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administrator Conrad C.] Lautenbacher's thanks to you for all of the positive things that you are saying about their forecasts," FEMA Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler wrote that night.
But Wednesday, Aug. 31 was a different story.
"Expect a call from HQ regarding Bay St. Louis," Brown wrote that day. "CNN asking where's FEMA. Would like to air drop or do something there."
In another message to FEMA's point man in Mississippi about Bay St. Louis, Brown continued to use the 24-hour cable news network's coverage to set priorities: "I even hate to email you about specific areas like this, but figure when CNN and some others are reporting it, we have a chance to get a good story out. I do not in any way want to micromanage or manage by press, so if you think I'm bugging you too much, let me know!"
Arabian horses and stranded pets
William Carwile, FEMA's coordinating officer in Mississippi, responded to Brown with frustration over the situation there, "I am afraid we have built expectations over the years that might not be achievable for this catastrophic event. Nevertheless, we are trying to do all we can."
As the media began to question Brown's qualifications to head the disaster relief agency, including his credentials as a past commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association, he exchanged messages with Oklahoma friends trying to organize a counteroffensive to the criticism.
"Spoke to [name redacted] (note that she is the largest breeder of Arabian Horses in the United States), and she indicated that she would be able to confirm for any media inquiry that your service as the AHA Commissioner was outstanding," wrote a supporter whose name was redacted. "… Hang in there – I was in Washington for 30 years, nothing but snakes."
On Sept. 8, a full 10 days after the storm hit, Brown ordered his field managers to develop a plan to evacuate pets in the face of mounting criticism on that issue.
"If evacuees are refusing to leave because they can't take their pets with them, I understand that. So, we need to facilitate the evacuation of those people by figuring out a way to allow them to take their pets," Brown wrote.
Then, when an unknown e-mail writer complained to him that evacuees were being forced to abandon their pets, Brown replied.
"I don't know you; and I'm certain you don't know me. I have read all of your emails as they've arrived. Let me assure you, as an animal lover and the owner of numerous pets over my lifetime, this issue is being addressed," he wrote.
When the e-mail writer thanked Brown for responding, the head of FEMA seemed to be trying to recruit an ally to enhance his image in his reply.
"Are you a member of PETA?" he asked in a Sept. 8. message. "I understand they are calling our office, etc. I would certainly like for someone like you to explain to them my position on this matter."
At that point, Brown was increasingly besieged by messages concerning media inquiries into his qualifications and background.
"Do you remember when you were asst city manager? Need dates (year) of when you were with Edmond," a FEMA public affairs official wrote to Brown that same day. Attached was a note from a Time reporter asking for response to a series of apparent fabrications that the magazine uncovered in Brown's professional resume.
Not the full story, Brown says
In an interview with the Center for Public Integrity, Brown said that the e-mails released do not paint an accurate picture of his efforts during the disaster. Many additional e-mails — chiefly those sent to the White House and senior Department of Homeland Security officials — were withheld, making the record an unfair reflection, Brown told the Center.
"I think a picture would emerge that I was down there engaged, knew what the problems were, was trying to fix the problems and that I had informed [Homeland Security Secretary Michael] Chertoff and the White House of exactly what the problems were and exactly what was working and not working." — Michael Brown, May 8 interview
He said the absence of e-mail with his superiors is evidence of a continuing effort to make him the fall guy for systemic failure in the Bush administration. If those messages are released, Brown said his performance would be vindicated.
"I think a picture would emerge that I was down there engaged, knew what the problems were, was trying to fix the problems and that I had informed [Homeland Security Secretary Michael] Chertoff and the White House of exactly what the problems were and exactly what was working and not working," Brown said.
As for Hutchinson, the former senator who tried to contact Brown during the storm, he was not available for comment this week.
But in an interview Monday, his client company's president Boyle said he was hoping for a meeting to resolve his concern that a lucrative contract was being unfairly steered to a competitor. The issue had been percolating since 2004 and continues to this day.
Boyle noted the irony that his lobbyist tried at that moment to reach Brown: the FEMA head would soon fall from grace as he became the public face of a massive federal failure.
"After that there was no point in meeting with Mr. Brown," Boyle said. |
Archive of Michael Brown e-mails [pdf] |
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