Meanwhile, the man who became the face of the Bush administration’s highly criticized response to the crisis took the occasion of Katrina’s one-year mark to lash out at his former superiors in the White House. Former FEMA Director Michael Brown spoke to reporters in Washington.

• Former FEMA Director Michael Brown: “No, we’re not prepared. Now I do believe that one of the most fascinating things I’ve heard the last couple of days is that Secretary Chertoff came out and made this statement–something to the effect that we must start doing catastrophic planning. It’s going to take us years to do that. I find it fascinating that I’ve been saying that since 2003, and now in 2006 they’re saying we’ve got to do this planning. So my hope is that they’re actually doing it. If they are, that means we’re on the path to being prepared. If they’re not, then shame on the administration and we need to slap them around and make certain that we start doing that kind of planning and preparation.”