On the morning of August 31, Marty Bahamonde, a 12-year career FEMA employee who was in New Orleans before, during, and after the Hurricane and spent two nights in the Superdome along with evacuees, sent a dire message to his boss, FEMA Director Michael Brown about deteriorating conditions at the Superdome. In part, it read:
Sir, I know that you know the situation is past critical. Here some things you might not know. Hotels are kicking people out, thousands gathering in the streets with no food or water. Hundreds still being rescued from homes. The dying patients at the DMAT tent being medivac. Estimates are many will die within hours. Evacuation in process. Plans developing for dome evacuation but hotel situation adding to problem. We are out of food and running out of water at the dome, plans in works to address the critical need.This message was ignored, but a few hours later Sharon Worthy, Brown's press secretary, sent Bahamonde a dire message of her own:
...it is very important that time is allowed for Mr. Brown to eat dinner. Gievn [sic] that Baton Rouge is back to normal, restaurants are getting busy. He needs much more that [sic] 20 or 30 minutes.[Video, Emails]