WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In sometimes heated testimony before a congressional committee Tuesday, former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown blamed Louisiana's leaders for dragging their heels last month as Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast.
Brown faced sharp questions during a House select committee probing the federal, state and local response to Katrina. The storm devastated Mississippi coastal towns August 29 and left most of New Orleans flooded when the city's protective levees failed at several points.
In more than six hours of testimony, Brown said Mississippi and Alabama had evacuated properly but that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco were reluctant to order an evacuation. (Watch congressmen grill Brown -- 4:40)
"My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday [August 27] that Louisiana was dysfunctional," he said in his opening testimony.
Later in the testimony he said, "My mistake was in [not] recognizing that, for whatever reasons, ... Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco were reticent to order a mandatory evacuation."
Speaking to reporters Tuesday about Brown's comments, Nagin said the former FEMA chief was trying to deflect attention.
"The federal government, state government and local government did not have the processes, in my opinion, to deal with a storm of this magnitude," Nagin said.
"Mr. Brown is maybe under a lot of pressure," he said. "I feel sorry for him."
Blanco disputed Brown's testimony on when an evacuation was ordered and which parishes were included in her disaster declaration.
In a statement, she accused Brown of making "falsehoods and misleading statements" under oath.
"It clearly demonstrates the appalling degree to which Mr. Brown is either out of touch with the truth or reality," she said, calling for a "thorough, nonpartisan investigation" of the response to Katrina.
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