Brown Defends Katrina Response, Blames State Leaders

Michael Brown, the former head of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, defended the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina before a congressional committee and called the state and local governments in Louisiana ``dysfunctional.''
``We can't deny the point that it worked in the other states and it didn't work in Louisiana,'' Brown told the House Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation and Response to Hurricane Katrina. ``The people of FEMA are tired of being beat up and they don't deserve it.''
Brown resigned from FEMA on Sept. 12 after widespread criticism of the government's response to Katrina, which swept ashore Aug. 29, devastating parts of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, killing more than 1,000 people.