Laughing Stock of Katrina Makes Disaster His Business

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.

Mr Brown was a newcomer to the emergency response business when he arrived at Fema in 2001, having been a commissioner of the international Arabian horses association. He was recruited by his friend and the then Fema director, Joe Allbaugh, who had served as campaign manager for President George Bush's 2000 campaign. When Mr Allbaugh left the agency in 2003 Mr Brown got his job.

In his interview with the Rocky Mountain News Mr Brown described his rapid ascent as "the American way", adding: "How many people come into a company in the mail room and work their way up to become president of the company?"

Mr Brown's version of the American success story imploded with Katrina. He was relieved of his managerial duties on September 9 and resigned three days later, barely a week after Mr Bush publicly praised him for doing a "heck of a job".

Mr Brown's reputation since has not been improved by the release of personal email by a congressional committee assessing the government's response to the hurricane. On August 26, as the hurricane bore down on the Louisiana coast, he emailed his press secretary, asking: "Tie or not for tonight? Button-down blue shirt?" The requests for wardrobe advice continued after Katrina hit the coast.