Top FEMA leaders have little
experience
Chicago Tribune
By Andrew Zajac and Andrew Martin
Washington Bureau
Published September 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Top officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency have
strong political connections to President Bush, but they also share at least
one other trait: They had little or no experience in disaster management before
landing in top FEMA posts.
Michael Brown, who heads FEMA as undersecretary of homeland security for
emergency preparedness and response, already has endured sharp criticism for
comments he made last week that seemed to suggest he did not understand that
thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina had taken refuge at the New Orleans
convention center.
Before joining FEMA in 2001, Brown, a protege of longtime Bush aide Joseph
Allbaugh, was commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association and
had virtually no experience in disaster management.
An official biography of Brown's top aide, acting deputy director Patrick
Rhode, doesn't list disaster relief experience.
The department's No. 3 official, acting deputy chief of staff Brooks
Altshuler, also does not have emergency management experience, according to
FEMA spokeswoman Natalie Rule.
Rule said the absence of direct experience managing emergencies is
irrelevant because top managers need "the ability to keep the organization
running."
But Eric Holdeman, director of the King County Office of Emergency
Management in Seattle, said familiarity with the specifics of disaster
management is essential.
"Experience is not just general managerial experience, it's experience in
the field," he said.
Rhode and Altshuler worked in the White House's Office of National Advance
Operations, which arranges Bush's travel and scripts his appearances.
The credentials of top FEMA managers stand in contrast to the backgrounds of
leaders of the agency during the last years of the Clinton administration.
Clinton-era FEMA Director James Lee Witt headed the Arkansas office of
emergency services before he was tapped by Clinton in 1993 to run the federal
disaster relief agency.
Witt's top aides in 2000, Lynn Canton and Michael Armstrong, ran regional
FEMA offices for at least three years before assuming senior positions in
Washington.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said the lack of experience in FEMA's top
ranks was evident in the sluggish response to the hurricane.
"Disaster preparedness, whether it's in anticipation of potential
weather-related incidents or terrorist incidents requires a skill set that in
my mind someone has to be trained for," said Thompson, ranking Democrat on the
House Committee on Homeland Security.
Moreover, The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Brown waited until
hours after Katrina had struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to
dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security Department employees to the region--and gave
them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.
Brown sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, the AP said.
Before then, FEMA had positioned smaller rescue and communications teams
across the Gulf Coast. But officials said Tuesday that the first
department-wide appeal for help came only as the storm raged.
Brown has stoutly defended FEMA's performance, saying the agency has done
the best it could under bad circumstances.
Last week, Bush, while saying that the initial federal response to the
hurricane was "not acceptable," nonetheless lauded Brown, telling him,
"Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan declined to echo
such praise.
"We've got to continue to do everything we can in support of those who are
involved in the operational aspects of this response effort," McClellan
said.
azajac@tribune.com
ajmartin@tribune.com
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