FEMA Director Brown ...responded to accusations that FEMA has been slow to respond:"This is an ongoing disaster. This disaster did not end the day Katrina made landfall. ... What happened is we suddenly had breaches [in New Orleans], and you cannot put rescue people in there because of the ongoing disaster." FEMA personnel's efforts were hampered by downed power lines, flooded roads and logistical nightmares caused by the storm, Brown added.
If what he wanted to say was that the environment was too chaotic and too dangerous to work in, and they needed at least some level of stability before they could do anything substantive, at the risk of simply adding to the death toll with his own people, he should say it, and not mealymouth around the concept. As it is, he seems to be saying 'we don't do major disasters' -- and surely that's not the case.
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