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The director of the United States' Federal Emergency Management Agency has quit in the wake of severe criticism over the government's response to the Hurricane Katrina crisis.
Michael Brown was relieved of command of the recovery effort on Friday and recalled to Washington from Louisiana by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who replaced Brown with US Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen.
"It is important that I leave now to avoid further distraction from the ongoing mission of FEMA," Brown said in a statement on Monday.
"When I came to work this morning, my mind still wasn't made up," Brown said in an interview to The Washington Post. "What made up my mind was the continued focus of the press with, 'What went wrong? What went right? Is Brown competent or incompetent?'..."I'm just one of those guys who knows, when you know what's right, just do it, so I pulled the trigger and resigned."
He became the first high-profile Bush administration official to step down amid public criticism of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, which has brought President Bush's poll ratings to an all-time low.
The White House announced that President Bush would name R David Paulison, now US Fire Administrator and director of preparedness for FEMA, to succeed Brown as acting undersecretary for emergency preparedness and response.
Brown's resignation came amidst Bush's third trip to the region since the disaster erupted. The president side-stepped questions about Brown's resignation. "Maybe you know something I don't know. I've been working," Bush told reporters, on an inspection tour of damage in Gulfport, Mississippi.