Michael Brown
Michael Brown
Former administrator of FEMA who resigned from his position after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Many americans blamed him for the slow response to help those in New Orleans in the aftermath of the deadly hurricane.
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth8 November 1954
CityGuymon, OK
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Without the bar district, they'll be no more Irish Weekends. It would be a crime to see that tradition end.
actions business enhancing fiscal foundation interest provide value
We're undertaking these actions in the interest of enhancing long-term shareholder value and to provide a strengthened foundation for our business in fiscal 2000 and going forward.
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We recognize your immediate focus is to provide relief for the hurricane victims in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, but hope you will reconsider your denial of individual assistance for our communities.
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We are grateful for the outpouring of support already, ... But it's important that volunteer response is coordinated by professionals who can direct volunteers with the appropriate skills to the hardest-hit areas where they are needed most. Self-dispatched volunteers and especially sightseers can put themselves and others in harm's way and hamper rescue efforts.
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We are seeing people we didn't know exist
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This story's not about me. This story's about the worst disaster of the history of our country that stretched every government to its limit, and now we have to help these victims. That's all I've wanted to do.
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Go ahead and do it. I'll figure out some way to justify it. ... Just let them yell at me.
data
If the data suggests we need to go further, we will.
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Those are not FEMA roles. FEMA doesn't evacuate communities. FEMA does not do law enforcement. FEMA does not do communications.
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What we have right now is a situation where, with my having access to the military, bringing in the National Guard troops, securing the area, we'll be able to continue the relief efforts that we have been doing over the last several days, ... We'll be able to ramp those up and continue the evacuation.
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When I became the director of FEMA a couple of years ago, I decided it was time we did some really serious catastrophic disaster planning. So the president gave me money through our budget to do that. And we went around the country to figure out what's the best model we can do for a catastrophic disaster in this country? And we picked New Orleans, Louisiana.
areas direct grateful hamper needed others outpouring rescue response skills support themselves volunteer volunteers
We're grateful for the outpouring of support already. But it's important that volunteer response is coordinated by the professionals who can direct volunteers with the appropriate skills to the hardest-hit areas where they are needed most. Self-dispatched volunteers and especially sightseers can put themselves and others in harm's way and hamper rescue efforts.
easy
Yes, it is painful. There is nothing easy about this.
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We didn't want to deal with it at that point,