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
absolutely fair federal government learned people
Brian, it's an absolutely fair question... The federal government just learned about those people today.
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There is no other government agency that reaches people in a more direct way, ... It has been the best job in the world to help Americans in their darkest hours.
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Yes, I learned about that, the federal government learned about that (Thursday), ... And that shows how difficult communications are in the situation where there was virtually no communications, except for our teams on the ground.
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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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It is inherently impractical, totally impractical, for the federal government to respond to every disaster of whatever size in every community across the country,
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Paula, the federal Government did not even know about the convention centre people until today.
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Government does have the right to take properties under eminent domain with caution and responsibility. In this case the tenant had gone out of business and abandoned the property. It is not right for them to get money because they breached the lease.
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The federal government did not even know about the convention center people until today.... Now is not the time to be blaming.
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I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife and, maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep. And then I'm going to go right back to FEMA and continue to do all I can to help these victims, ... 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.
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We were prepared but overwhelmed is the best way I can put it. We knew what to do. We knew how to do it. But because we're stretched thin, because we still had these logistical problems, it quickly overwhelmed us.
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What is tremendously exciting is we can see it from Earth; we see these big clouds coming from above these methane vents or methane volcanoes.
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I've overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I'm doing, and I think I do a pretty darn good job of it,
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I very strongly personally regret that I was unable to persuade Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down, get over their differences and work together. I just couldn't pull that off.
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These demonstrate weaknesses in management and must be addressed as a matter of good practice.