Things Get Really Bad in an Emergency

This came out yesterday, but I didn't get a chance to note it at the time. The New York Times published an in-depth interview with former FEMA Director Michael Brown. Still a team player, apparently, he discusses problems the White House had in responding, but he says he doesn't think the administration is at fault. He is, however, able to give us an idea of why things went so bad:

Mr. Brown acknowledged that he had been criticized for not ordering a complete evacuation or calling in federal troops sooner. But he said the storm made it hard to communicate and assess the situation.

"Until you have been there," he said, "you don't realize it is the middle of a hurricane."

It was because there was a hurricane! Without the massive storm, FEMA wouldn't have had the same kind of problems in responding. In fact, they wouldn't even have needed to respond at all! You can't expect the Federal Emergency Management Agency to just jump right into the middle of an emergency!! It's dangerous. It's confusing. You don't even know what's going to happen. How are you supposed to get anything done under those kinds of conditions? How are you even supposed to know what to do? Why doesn't everybody just give Brownie a break?