Laughing stock of Katrina (Brownie) makes disaster his business (Guardian)

(Michael Brown: "Laughing stock", "man-made calamity", "a national joke," God, I love The Guardian!)

Laughing stock of Katrina makes disaster his business

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Saturday November 26, 2005
The Guardian

Michael Brown, the bureaucrat who headed America's response to Hurricane Katrina and himself became a symbol of man-made calamity, is going into the disaster management business. He is setting up as a consultant, marketing his expertise on coping with catastrophe - natural and self-made.

"Look, Hurricane Katrina showed how bad disasters can be, and there's an incredible need for individuals and businesses to understand how important preparedness is," Mr Brown told the Rocky Mountain News. "So if I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses - because that goes straight to the bottom line - then I hope I can help the country in some way."

He plans to base his business in the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado, which is unlikely to suffer a hurricane in the near future, and claims to have already signed up clients for his new venture. As director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he became a national joke soon after Katrina made landfall. As stories emerged of hellish conditions at evacuee shelters, and images of poor, mostly black citizens of New Orleans begging for food hit television screens, Mr Brown seemed eerily detached.

In television interviews the Fema director said he was unaware that hundreds of people were marooned at the New Orleans convention centre. "Don't you guys watch television?" the exasperated anchor asked

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