More FEMA bigs are bailing out [View All]

[brooklynite]

DAILY NEWS EXCLUSIVE

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - Even as Hurricane Ophelia crashed ashore yesterday, more FEMA political appointees abandoned ship amid the torrent of criticism over the agency's handling of Hurricane Katrina.
Daniel Craig, recovery division director for the embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency, told staffers that he had resigned within hours of his former boss, FEMA Director Michael Brown, who quit Monday, agency officials said.

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Craig told staffers he expects to testify at congressional hearings probing why FEMA's response was so inadequate after Katrina flooded the Gulf Coast.

"A lot of the political will disappear," Craig predicted, according to one official.

A second top official, Edward Buikema, acting director of the response division, is returning to his old job - a lesser position - as Region 5 director in Chicago, sources said.

Patrick Rhode, FEMA deputy director and former White House advance man, also is expected by many to resign because of a sour relationship with the new acting director, U.S. Fire Administrator David Paulison.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/346648p-295731c.html