WASHINGTON -- Michael Brown, who lost his job over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, yesterday blamed Louisiana officials for the chaos, deaths and human misery that followed the storm's landfall by not evacuating the city early enough and by "overemphasizing" lawlessness after the storm.

Dennis Cook, Associated Press Former FEMA director Michael Brown defends his response to Hurricane Katrina during a hearing yesterday on Capitol Hill. Click photo for larger image.

In a contentious day-long hearing in the House before the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina, Brown also said he knew the Federal Emergency Management Agency had been weakened by budget cuts but never sounded a public alarm.

Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., lambasted Brown, who is still being paid his $138,000 federal salary as a consultant after Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, sent him back to Washington.

When Brown complained he was driven out of office because the media disclosed "false" discrepancies in his resume, Shays snapped, "No, because you didn't do a good job, because you're clueless, because you let your department be eviscerated."

Shays said he found it "shocking" that Brown testified under oath he knew his agency did not have the financial or physical resources it needed to handle a major disaster but never told Congress, which appropriates money at the administration's request. Brown said that when Katrina hit, "we were short 500 people" and millions of dollars.

Brown testified that he preferred to try to achieve results from "inside" the system. He said he was "frustrated" that his requests for more money and personnel were turned down by the Department of Homeland Security, which had taken control of FEMA, and by the White House Office of Management and Budget.

He also said there was no "unified central command" after Katrina hit and that the disaster "overwhelmed" everyone's ability to respond. At one point he asked angrily if people expected him to be a "superhero." Shays answered, "I wanted you to do your job and coordinate."

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., committee chairman, said the hearing was held to find out why FEMA failed. "It's not like we're talking about the Department of Motor Vehicles here. We're talking about the federal agency charged with coordinating response to massive disasters."

Davis said he will demand documents from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and state and local officials to find out what happened. He said the White House will cooperate because President Bush promised he would.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D- Ca., told Democrats not to show up for the hearing, arguing that a GOP-dominated committee won't be as effective in investigating the Bush administration's response to Katrina as an independent commission would be.

Two Democrats, Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi and William Jefferson of Louisiana, broke ranks with Pelosi and asked Brown tough questions.

Jefferson, whose district is New Orleans, said he found it "stunning" that Brown blamed the media and state and local officials of Louisiana for the federal failure after a mock hurricane drill in 2004 showed that they would be unable to handle the situation if the levees were breached. "No matter how it's described, the help didn't come," he said.

Taylor and Jefferson both said they are glad Brown no longer runs FEMA. They hammered him for not having the proper communications equipment on hand for Katrina, for not getting buses in to evacuate people for days, for not getting gasoline to those trying to leave, for not having a contract in place to remove dead bodies, and for not sending ice or generators to the victims.

Brown insisted it was not the federal government's job to give gasoline to individuals, even when pumps don't work because there's no electricity. He said it's up to individuals to prepare for a disaster by having enough fuel, batteries and non-perishable food on hand for several days. He said he opposes giving disaster victims because it's a luxury.

Davis said that it was inevitable Congress needed to talk to Brown after he said on CNN that he didn't know four days after landfall that the Convention Center had become a place where thousands of evacuees were located without water, food or medical care. Brown said he had misspoken and that he did know about the convention three days after landfall, although food and water did not get to the center until Friday, five days after Katrina hit.

Brown volunteered two things he would have done differently -- hold regular media briefings and persuade Louisiana officials to evacuate the city on 48 hours before the storm hit instead of only 24 hours.

Shays said contemptuously that Brown was acting like a job interviewee claiming his major fault was that he worked too hard and asked what else Brown thought he did wrong. Brown said he would have called in the military 24 hours earlier.

Shays said, "I'm happy you left. That kind of look in the lights like a deer tells me you weren't capable of doing that job."

Davis said that the committee expects to call New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Lousiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Chertoff. Brown said the Chertoff's department stiffed his agency on money and manpower to emphasize responding terrorism over natural disasters.

Yesterday Nagin told reporters Brown's testimony was "unbelievable" when the "record" shows FEMA did not do its job and that an analysis will show the state saved lives in a hectic situation. But he said he also felt sorry for Brown because he is "obviously under a lot of pressure."

Brown told reporters during the hurricane aftermath that Louisiana officials were running a "tight-knit" operation and making the right calls. He said yesterday he didn't mean it. "My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday [two days before landfall] that Louisiana was dysfunctional." Brown said tension between Nagin and Blanco was to blame for some of the problems. He said Mississippi and Alabama had a smoother time.

Blanco, a Democrat, yesterday denied Brown's claim that she delayed evacuating New Orleans until Sunday and that it showed Brown was "out of touch with the truth or reality."