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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Testifying before a congressional committee, former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown on Tuesday blamed Louisiana's leaders for dragging their heels last month as Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast.
Brown appeared before a House select committee probing the federal, state and local response to Katrina. The storm devastated Mississippi beach towns and left most of New Orleans flooded when the city's protective levees failed at several points.
Brown said Mississippi and Alabama had evacuated properly, but said New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco were reluctant to order an evacuation. (Watch Brown's comments -- 3:51)
"My mistake was in recognizing that for whatever reasons ... Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco were reticent to order a mandatory evacuation," he said.
"If I, Mike Brown, individual, could have done something to convince them that this was the big one and they needed to order a mandatory evacuation, I would have done it."
In a heated exchange, Rep. Christopher Shays questioned whether Brown did enough to coordinate the response.
"What would you like for me to do congressman," Brown asked the Connecticut Republican.
"That's why I'm happy you left," Shays said, "because that kind of, you know, look in the lights like a deer, tells me that you weren't capable to do the job."
Brown said he wasn't a dictator and couldn't make state or local officials do anything.
"I guess you want me to be the superhero that is going to step in there and suddenly take everybody out of New Orleans."
Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, one of three Democrats who participated in the hearing despite Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's decision not to appoint members to the select committee, took issue with Brown's testimony.
"I find it absolutely stunning that this hearing would start out with you, Mr. Brown, laying the blame for FEMA's failings at the feet of the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans," Jefferson said.
"I think it's fair to say that perhaps mistakes (were) made all around, but I don't think the response of the federal government can be explained on the basis of, as you have said here, you could not persuade the governor and the mayor to sit down and coordinate a response."
Jefferson noted that the governor had requested a disaster declaration from the federal government three days before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, which was approved by President Bush two days before the storm hit.
Brown told the panel that FEMA was a coordinating agency, not a first responder, and stressed that it was vital that "emergency management begins at the local level."
"The reason that this primary responsibility, this first response is at the local level is that it is inherently impractical, totally impractical for the federal government to respond to every disaster of whatever size in every community across the country," Brown said. (Watch Brown's defense of FEMA -- 3:02)
Brown resigned September 12 after two weeks of intense criticism of FEMA's response to Katrina, which killed more than 1,000 people when it struck near the Louisiana-Mississippi state line August 29.
Just 10 days earlier, President Bush had praised Brown during his first trip to the region, telling him, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
Bush's comments came as thousands of New Orleans residents huddled in the Ernest Morial Convention Center in oppressive heat with little food or water.
Brown had told CNN on September 1 that he was not aware that there were evacuees at the convention center until that day and that "considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well."
Brown also came under fire because of alleged inconsistencies in his resume, and his relatively limited emergency management experience.
He said that those claims were not true, and in some cases were defamatory.
"I have overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I am doing. And I think I do a pretty darn good job of it," Brown told the panel.
In his opening remarks Tuesday, Brown said he expected to be asked by investigators if he did all he could in response to the storm, which devastated the Gulf Coast and is blamed for more than 1,000 deaths.
"The answer to that question is 'yes,' but I do believe there are specific mistakes that I made with Hurricane Katrina. I will mention two.
"First, I did not set up a system of media briefings which I should have done as that would have required less of my time than responding to all the requests for interviews.
"Second, I regret not being able to persuade Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down and coordinate their response."
Brown is still being paid as a consultant to help FEMA assess what went wrong. (Watch Brown still on the FEMA payroll -- 3:20)
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA's parent agency, said last week that Brown would be paid for about a month for "transitional purposes." The spokesman, Russ Knocke, said he did not know how much Brown was being paid.
Brown's 2004 salary was $145,600, according to the Plum Book, a congressional reference guide to executive branch salaries.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/27/katrina.brown/index.html
