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This article reports that Michael Brown, the ousted director of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, blamed Louisiana officials for the government's tardy response to Hurricane Katrina. His biggest mistake was not recognizing by August 27, 2005, that Louisiana was dysfunctional, Brown said at a U.S. House select committee hearing on the matter. Brown was pulled from the Gulf Coast region on September 9 and resigned three days later. Brown said the decision by Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin not to evacuate the area until August 28--the day before Katrina struck--was the tipping point for all the other things that went wrong or disintegrated.

The article reports that U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Disaster Recovery Subcommittee ranking member Ted Stevens has called for a post World War II-type Marshall Plan to finish the long-delayed clean up and rebuilding of Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. His suggestion came during a hearing of the Disaster Recovery Subcommittee after listening to frustrated Louisiana officials recount their problems with the Federal Emergency Management Agency