Deadly Indifference: The Perfect (Political) Storm: Hurricane Katrina, The Bush White House, and Beyond

by Michael D. Brown, Ted Schwarz

At last, former Under Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Brown—infamously praised by President George W. Bush for doing a "heckuva job" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina—tells his side of the response to one of the greatest natural disasters to occur in the United States. Without making excuses for anyone, least of all the President of the United States or himself, Brown describes in detail what ultimately turned out to be the largest federal response to a natural disaster in U.S. history.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History

232 pages, Hardcover

First published April 20, 2011

About the author

Michael D. Brown was Undersecretary of Homeland Security in the administration of President George W. Bush. A consultant and radio talk show host, he lives in Denver, Colorado."

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brown was the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the time of Hurricane Katrina. After being blamed by assorted Bush Administration figures for the federal response to the hurricane Brown decided to give his side of the story. He maintains that FEMA has gotten a bum rap and most of the problems were the result of local officials and their failure to order an evacuation until it was too late. Other problems were due to the added layer of bureaucracy due to FEMA being folded into DHS and the different mission FEMA has from the rest of DHS, response rather then prevention. Michael Chertoff gets particular blame, but the President, and others in the Administration get some as well. [return][return]An interesting view of the events surrounding Katrina, but more importantly a scathing indictment of politicians in general. Brown rightly points to the idea of NIMBI or “Not in My Best Interest”, as the overriding motive behind most politicians from both parties. They are more concerned with scoring political points then in actually doing what is needed. The recent debates regarding the debt ceiling serve to emphasize his points. The book is a little uneven and runs out of steam before the last chapter which feels tacked on, possibly to stretch the length which is only 232 pages including index and documentation. [return][return]I received this book from the LT Early Readers program.

[Romeo Lavarias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Brown explains how his efforts were hampered in response to Hurricane Katrina. It is indicative of the typical inexperienced political appointee who suddenly find themselves in a disaster situation where they suddenly find out that they are in over their head. He lays the blame on Mayor Nagin, Governor Blanco, his boss DHS Secretary Chertoff, and to an extent President Bush. He is right. Katrina served as a glaring example of failure on all levels of government.

He spoke of the FEMA Hurricane Pam Exercise that predicted a hurricane striking New Orleans would flood the city. The results were completely ignored by FEMA administration because it was too expensive to address, and alludes that it was this ignoring of the results that made the disaster more devastating. Trouble is, he wasn't there when the exercise was carried out.

[Ernest · Rating 3 out of 5]

A personal memoir that details the challenges of providing support services following a disaster. The book gives a deeper understanding of why it is difficult to provide help when the success also depends on the actions of other persons and interests that may not be working for the same goals (NIMBI--not in my best interest). The political motives and lack of coordination with other government agencies can worsen the immediate aftermath. A good read to appreciate how a deadly indifference to natural disaster risks can be a costly mistake.

[1bekah · Rating 1 out of 5]

During Hurricane Katrina this author sends an email stating “I need time off for dinner out on the town, traveling to and from the restaurant and waiting for a table” while people had to wait days for food and water in New Orleans. This guy is so out of touch. He takes no responsibility. Yuck!

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hurricane Katrina was the most destructive event in the history of the United States. There were 300,000 homes destroyed, one million people displaced, over 1,800 deaths, a cost of approximately $96 billion incurred, and damage was spread over a 93,000 square mile area, affecting Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, as well as causing the Mississippi River to flood areas of Ohio and Kentucky. Michael Brown points out in the book Deadly Indifference, that the area affected was approximately the same size as Great Britain. With this much damage and this many people affected, there are bound to be many people who are frustrated and upset, who end up saying or doing things that they wouldn't under normal circumstances. Emotions were running so high, that still, over five years after the storm, people are coming out to tell their version of the story.

George Bush, stated that the low point of his career was when Kanye West called him racist because the government was so slow in providing help to New Orleans. Kanye West later 'somewhat' apologized saying that he was frustrated and let his emotions get the best of him. And just days after Michael Brown released his book, Deadly Indifference, Ray Nagin the mayor of New Orleans released his own version of the event. So many people want to place the blame on someone else. I think that Michael Brown shows in his book that many people made mistakes and many people are to blame, but being the political creatures that we are, we are often too willing to try to place the blame elsewhere.

Michael Brown, who was the Under Secretary of Homeland Security and the director of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) during Hurricane Katrina, in his book, Deadly Indifference, gives us insight into what was going on just prior to, during, and immediately after Katrina crashed into the southern US coast. He gives us information about the workings of FEMA to help us understand the situation better. For instance, he explains that Homeland Security and FEMA respond to all sorts of disasters such as the space shuttle disaster, terrorist events such as 9/11, disease pandemics, and natural disasters such as earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, and tsunamis. He goes on to explain however, that since 9/11, Homeland Security tends to place more focus on terrorism, and less on natural disasters, which may have proved to be a disaster in itself.

Brown explains some of the workings of FEMA and the procedures that must be followed. For example, most of us probably do not know that FEMA cannot order an evacuation, they can only recommend one. It is up to the governor of the state or mayor of a city to do so. While the Federal Government can call up the National Guard for military duty, neither they nor FEMA can call up the National Guard for disaster needs. It is up to the governor to do so. Due to the Constitution and Supreme Court decisions, there are procedures that have to be followed concerning states' rights in such incidents. Also, although many of us believe that FEMA has some huge team of people that can just show up to give aid, this is not so. They have to gather local, state, and federal personnel, for example from neighboring police and fire departments, and they then coordinate the efforts of these teams.

Brown also describes many of the mistakes that people made during the event. He tells of the failure of mayor Ray Nagin to order an evacuation of New Orleans until it was too late. He describes the Louisiana governor's lack of taking control of the situation. He describes how some politicians tried to use the event for photo ops to promote themselves in the eyes of their voters. And finally, he describes how many of us are often indifferent to circumstances which we could better prepare for, or even avoid. For instance, much of the land in New Orleans should never have been used for homes because it is under sea level. Also, the the Army Corps of Engineers failed to maintain or upgrade the levees that protected the city. Maybe people didn't want to pay higher taxes to maintain the levees, but Brown points out that it is just that sort of indifference which brought about more deaths and damage than was necessary.

[Tom Dye · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times throughout Deadly Indifference, the information about and the story of Katrina became particularly intriguing, even exciting for me to read. Unfortuneatly, those moments were too few. There was a lot of repetition in this book, specifically the stating over and over again that Mayor Ray Nagin should have called for a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. But in this regard, I believe Mr. Brown made his point particularly well. I suspect that if Mayor Nagin had ordered a mandatory evacuation, Michael Brown would not have had a need to write this book. The book starts off a little slow with too many pages spent on the 1951 cold war civil defense film Duck and Cover. Later in the book there is a passage about a toddler that choked on a hot dog and the grieving mother's crusade against the design of hot dogs, which left me to wonder if the author had earned his fee by the word count. The best chapters are smack in the middle of the book, where the reading is most interesting and the material exciting too. In the end, I finished the book feeling like Katrina was a disaster made worse by politicians making decisions based on their own best interest, and events exaggerated by misinformation peddled by a media where "everyone wanted to be first more than anyone wanted to be accurate."

[Gareth Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are very few case studies on effects of disasters on modern cities(?). I think the value of this book is about the insight it provides to behaviours of a democracy in the face of disaster. The scale of the disaster (93,000 square miles - about the size of the UK and facts like 10,000 people taking refuge in the Superdome) struck home). There were a few lines which are 'keepers': knowledge, competence and preparedness can be trumped by politics and fear. The concept of NIMBI - not in my best interest. Just in time logistics are entrenched practices and failure quickly affects basics - food and fuel. Controls like the levees assumed the status of mountains, whereas in reality the design limitations were built in and not maintained so people thought nothing of building below sea-level. Late invocation in a situation of uncertainty. This is highly recommended reading for anyone in the disaster prevention business - reading the congressional report now.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wavers back and forth between being a unique, front-line perspective of Hurricane Katrina and it's aftermath, and a shameless apology and casting of blame by the author. For the most part I enjoyed the author's impartiality toward politicians, but overall Mr. Brown's 200 page attempt at absolving himself of any wrongdoing comes off as trite.

[Theresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is so horribly written and one sided I finally became too disgusted to continue reading.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hope this is not a pro administration book during the time of Katrina.