Brown: 'Can I Go Home?'

As Katrina Pummeled Gulf, Michael Brown Pondered Dogs, Wardrobe

(CBS/AP) 
Brown, who resigned under fire Sept. 12, 2005, after being heavily criticized for the federal government's slow reaction to the hurricane, has said he will remain employed by the FEMA to help the agency complete its review of the response to Hurricane Katrina. He said he would also be reviewing for the agency a large number of Freedom of Information requests dealing with the response.

Asked in a telephone interview if he expects to complete that work by the end of his second 30-day extension, Brown replied, "Absolutely. I'm motivated to wrap it up. I'm ready to move on."

Brown resigned three days after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff relieved him of his onsite command of FEMA's response to Katrina. The storm killed more than 1,200 people along the Gulf Coast, flooded New Orleans and forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands. R. David Paulison was named acting director.

Earlier memos obtained by news organizations show that FEMA struggled to locate food, ice, water and even body bags in the days following Hurricane Katrina, a frantic effort punctuated by bureaucratic chaos, infighting and concerns about media coverage.

"Biggest issue: resources are far exceeded by requirements," wrote William Carwile, the top Federal Emergency Management Agency official in Mississippi in a Sept. 3 e-mail to a state official. "Getting less than 25 percent of what we have been requesting from HQ daily."

In other released internal FEMA e-mails, Marty Bahamonde, the first FEMA official to arrive in New Orleans in advance of the Aug. 29 storm, sent a dire e-mail warning to Brown saying victims had no food and were dying.

No response came from Brown. Instead, less than three hours later, an aide to Brown sent an e-mail saying her boss wanted to go on a television program that night but first would need at least an hour to eat dinner at a Baton Rouge restaurant.

Bahamonde, who sent the e-mail to Brown two days after the storm struck, said the e-mails illustrate the government's failure to grasp what was happening. Click here to read the e-mails (PDF).

"There was a systematic failure at all levels of government to understand the magnitude of the situation," Bahamonde testified. "The leadership from top down in our agency is unprepared and out of touch."