The government's decision to fold the Federal Emergency Management Agency into the Department of Homeland Security led to FEMA's failure during Hurricane Katrina, former FEMA Director Michael Brown testified Friday.
"There was a cultural clash which didn't recognize the absolute inherent science of preparing for disaster, responding to it, mitigating against future disasters and recovering from disaster," he said during an opening statement before a Senate panel looking into the government's response to the hurricane.
Cultural of or relating to the arts and manners that a group favors; "cultural events"; "a person of broad cultural interests" 2: denoting or deriving from or distinctive of the ways of living built up by a group of people; "influenced by ethnic and cultural ties"- J.F.Kennedy; "ethnic food" [syn: ethnic, ethnical] 3: of or relating to the shared knowledge and values of a society; "cultural roots" 4: relating to the raising of plants or animals; "a cultural variety"
Can any of these FEMA/Homeland security people say anything without putting their foot in their mouth? Yeah, cultural events... your families weren't treading water while the people in NO were.
Mr. Brown, you were too busy having dinner to do your job and save people who were dying. Now you continue to try and slime your way out of this. If this event had happened in a third world country, we'd be calling it mass murder.
"There was a cultural clash which didn't recognize the absolute inherent science of preparing for disaster, responding to it, mitigating against future disasters and recovering from disaster," he said during an opening statement before a Senate panel looking into the government's response to the hurricane.
Cultural of or relating to the arts and manners that a group favors; "cultural events"; "a person of broad cultural interests" 2: denoting or deriving from or distinctive of the ways of living built up by a group of people; "influenced by ethnic and cultural ties"- J.F.Kennedy; "ethnic food" [syn: ethnic, ethnical] 3: of or relating to the shared knowledge and values of a society; "cultural roots" 4: relating to the raising of plants or animals; "a cultural variety"
Can any of these FEMA/Homeland security people say anything without putting their foot in their mouth? Yeah, cultural events... your families weren't treading water while the people in NO were.
Mr. Brown, you were too busy having dinner to do your job and save people who were dying. Now you continue to try and slime your way out of this. If this event had happened in a third world country, we'd be calling it mass murder.
