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

by Michael D. Brown, Ted Schwarz

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589794863
Publisher:	Taylor Trade Publishing
Publication date:	06/16/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	847,842
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

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

Ted Schwarz is the author of over 100 books, several of them bestsellers. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

Editorial Reviews

The inside scoop on Katrina from former undersecretary of Homeland Security, famously called "Brownie" by George W. Bush, is no mea culpa, but rather a blast of blame aimed at numerous parties. Deadly indifference is indeed evident in the mishandling of the flood: poorly maintained levees broke, flooding much of the city, including the Superdome, a last-minute refugee center that was "never part of the initial planning." Brown indicts everyone from Bush to Donald Rumsfeld to local politicians, yet statements such as "the people in the Superdome often sounded like teenagers sitting around a campfire during an overnight camping trip, scaring themselves with ghost stories" show questionable judgment; he faults the media for not fact-checking stories, yet acknowledges the strain; "there is no time to double-check. There is likely no one available who wants to bother to correct errors with so much critical activity taking place." About horror stories of political interference, Brown comments, "It did not mater that the FEMA employee's time was being wasted by congressional representatives who had no power or influence". If they could look like leaders, they would be leaders..." Though at times Brown seems more concerned with his rep than a reckoning of Katrina, his account is informative and discouraging. Photos. (June)

Publishers Weekly

And if you’re shaking your head that Michael “FEMA” Brown would actually have the temerity or boneheadedness to write a Katrina book called Deadly Indifference, you don’t know Brownie.

BlogOfNewOrleans.com

An excellent additional perspective on the disaster of Katrina, and a critical examination of bungled disaster management.

Midwest Book Review

Even when our government is successful, e.g., in the raid to kill Osama bin Laden, the truth of what actually occurred can be hard to come by. But when the government's actions are widely considered to have been a failure, the truth can be even more difficult to uncover. Brown was the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, and he took most of the heat for the government's poor response to the disaster. Here, he claims he was the scapegoat—and he makes a great case that there is plenty of blame to go around, with ample evidence that politicians at the local, state, and national levels were inept and concerned more about their image than the people in need. He also shows how the news media contributed to the mayhem that followed the hurricane. VERDICT Brown's version of events will be of interest to politics junkies, journalists, and the millions of people whose lives were impacted by Katrina. In offering the other side of the story, Brown presents valuable information for historians who will eventually decide where to place the blame for the inadequate relief efforts.—Robert Bruce Slater, Stroudsburg, PA

Library Journal