Officials On The Hot Seat

(CBS)  It's been four days since Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast, and many people feel the response of the federal and Louisiana governments has been inadequate.

On The Early Show Friday, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Louisiana's governor defended themselves in the face of tough questioning by co-anchors Harry Smith and Hannah Storm.

Storm pointed out to FEMA Director Michael Brown that New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin has issued what he called a "desperate SOS," and another city official described the federal response as a national disgrace.

"I understand the mayor's frustration," Brown said. "I met with the mayor immediately after the storm had passed, talked with him about his needs. He had at great list of priorities. We have been having a continuous flow of commodities into the Superdome.

"There were five trucks arriving (Thursday) night to feed well over 50,000 people. There's less than that there. We're also diverting supplies to the convention center, which I learned about (Thursday). So I understand people's frustrations. But this has been an absolutely catastrophic disaster, and we're doing absolutely everything we can to get the supplies into those folks."

"Are you slow to get information?" Storm said. "You said you just learned about the convention center. There's 25,000 people there; reports of dead bodies, rapes, fights breaking out."

"Yes, I learned about that, the federal government learned about that (Thursday)," Brown said. "And that shows how difficult communications are in the situation where there was virtually no communications, except for our teams on the ground."

"What are your priorities now?" Storm said. "We are looking at no food and water, these horrific security issues, all of these tens of thousands of people that need to be evacuated. Where is the priority? There seems to be an inadequate response in all areas."

Brown said there are two priorities.

"One is to secure the area. The First Army is here with me," he said. "We're directing them and having them side by side with us. There will be approximately 30,000 National Guard troops here, and that will continue to increase over the next several days. That will allow us to continue those relief efforts.

"I understand that there are pockets where people have not gotten the basics, and we're working with the Coast Guard to get those. But I'm telling you, we have those supplies, we are getting those supplies into the people. … In this catastrophic event, everything that we pre-positioned and had ready to go became overwhelmed immediately after the storm."

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