Congressional panel grills former FEMA Director over emergency preparedness

Michael Brown, the former Director of FEMA, was grilled by Congress over the lack of emergency preparedness. Brown said that while he had resources that this was contingent on New Orleans timely evacuation. The National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center warned the elected officials that a Cat. 4 or 5 was on its way. FEMA had prepositioned assets so that they wouldnt also become a victim of the hurricane. The National Hurricane Center advised the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana to issue a mandatory evacuation 56 hours before Katrina made landfall. They did issue a mandatory evacuation but not until just 24 hours before landfall. The president had also made a call to the governor. Only the mayor and the governor legally had the authority to issue a mandatory evacuation order not the FEMA director. The White House regrets not over-riding the authority of the governor. There was a hurricane drill in New Orleans conducted by FEMA called Hurricane Pam in July 2004 which did anticpate many of things that happened during Katrina unfortunately FEMA was unable to fullfill its obligations for the federal government because the city and state did not order a timely evacuation which would have made the job of FEMA much more effective. FEMA assits the state and local governments but cannot be the lead agency because it does not have the legal authority.