Brown Hasn't Left The Disaster Field

Ex-FEMA Chief Fights Post-Katrina Image

It has been two years since Michael D. Brown's exit strategy got blown away by Hurricane Katrina.

He had been planning to step aside after Labor Day 2005 -- the holiday, in fact, was set to be his "last hurrah," according to one of his many personal e-mails made public after Katrina that came back to haunt him. The last hurrah turned into an extended punch line for the political-appointee head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- one that he is not pausing too long to reflect upon, two years to the day after one of the worst natural disasters in modern U.S. history.

"I cannot believe it's been two years when I see how bad things are down there," Brown said in an interview yesterday. He said that he has not been back to New Orleans since Katrina -- "I haven't been invited" -- but he gets updates from people doing work there. Also, he's busy.

He has fashioned a career for himself as a disaster management consultant and public speaker. The image of him that remains -- the Brownie who did a heck of a job, who needed extra time for a meal at a crowded Baton Rouge restaurant while the situation at the Louisiana Superdome became more and more desperate -- is one he says he carries with him these days on the public speaking circuit.

Today, Brown splits his time between Washington, D.C., and Colorado, working as a disaster preparedness consultant for a number of corporations, including Cotton Cos., which works to restore wireless communications.

He is on the public speaking circuit too, addressing, among others, students and Macy's on business continuity (this despite his preference for Nordstrom, as noted in those e-mails).

"I can just refer to them and people know what I'm talking about," Brown said of the e-mails. "Everyone has sent an e-mail to their staff in times of stress and times of trouble. I don't regret any of those. I was still trying to pump up my staff to continue to work hard under the most difficult conditions, and the fact that some congressman wants to play politics with those e-mails -- well, I'm bigger and tougher than that."

There's more politics being played today, from Brown's point of view. On Sept. 2, 2005, when President Bush met with him in Mississippi, Bush noted the work that FEMA was doing on the ground and said: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." But after national criticism of FEMA's response and specifically of Brown, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff relieved him of all relief duties in the Gulf region on Sept. 9. Brown resigned three days later.

This week, on the presidential stump in New Orleans, former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) recalled some of that criticism in introducing what he called "Brownie's Law" -- an initiative to ensure that federal appointees are qualified for the roles they take on.

"John Edwards took one of the most hollow cheap shots that anybody can take," Brown said. He noted that the bills Congress passed last year to strengthen FEMA staffing would not preclude him from assuming the leadership role he had.

"I qualify under their standards," he said. "I started as general counsel and worked my way up the ladder. If John Edwards wants to play politics over this, then he could have voted against me when he was in the Senate."

This dim view of Washington -- or at least the politics one might need to play to get to Washington -- extends to Brown's view of FEMA and the way the agency is still under the Department of Homeland Security. Brown said he hears that morale at FEMA is low and that people are discouraged by the way things are going.

"We have this aging workforce. We need to bring in more career civil servants who take emergency management seriously," Brown said. "But they don't want to go work in that morass of DHS. I've spoken to several colleges and universities -- they love the profession, but they all talk about working in state and local communities -- and don't talk about working for the federal government."

But people do still want to work for FEMA, said Aaron Walker, the agency's national spokesman. He said that the agency, which was understaffed when Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005, and then lost about a third of its workforce after the storm, is now at a record high of 95.7 percent staffing.

Walker also noted that at a recent FEMA job fair, 600 applicants showed up to try for fewer than 100 jobs. "FEMA is slowly winning back the confidence of the American people," Walker said.

And FEMA is still in Brown's thoughts as well.

While Hurricane Dean was making its approach last week, Brown was in Houston making sure his clients were prepared, and staying glued to coverage of the storm. "I watch it and think about the folks back at FEMA, and I think about them. They're good people, and I can't help but think about them," Brown said.

And while his work takes him to Washington about five or six days a month, Brown says he and Bush -- the man who dubbed him "Brownie" -- have not been in touch recently.

"He knows my number," Brown said.