Former FEMA Director Michael Brown believes the damage from Hurricane Harvey will end up costing taxpayers more than Hurricane Katrina.
“As those waters continue to sit there and rise and fall, the damage that’s already existing will get even worse,” Brown said on CNN Tuesday. “So I think that once, let’s say two weeks from now when all of the waters have gone and all of the damage assessments are being done, I think FEMA’s going to realize at that point that they have one major catastrophe on their hands that’s going to cost the taxpayers a lot more than they think it’s going to cost today.”
Brown also said he was concerned the crisis could not be properly addressed without Congress filling the many vacancies that remain in the Trump administration.
“My first and main concern was in this administration we have a lot of vacancies. If you look though, The Washington Post keeps a tracker, and if you look through, you will see there are a lot of deputy secretaries and under secretaries and assistant secretaries that have not even been nominated yet. So my concern was that the FEMA director reaches out to all the people in the cabinet because he needs their assets and resources. I want to make sure there is someone there to pick up the phone,” Brown said.
Brown warned the damage will continue to pile on as the water levels rise and fall, and any damage that exists will only worsen as time goes on.
“Right now everyone is thinking of today. And I’m looking at tomorrow and the next day and longer,” Brown said.
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