The Katrina 4: Where Are They Now?

(Aug. 25) -- It has been nearly five years since President George W. Bush turned to then-FEMA director Michael Brown and spoke those words:

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

On Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,300 people and flooding New Orleans in one of the worst disasters the United States has ever seen. For some public figures, the hurricane was the beginning of a political storm as well. As floodwaters receded, images of a lawless New Orleans ensured that criticism of the government's response to the disaster only rose.

The storm proved to be both a destroyer of careers and a kingmaker, from Brown, the embattled director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who resigned from his post amid accusations that he was incompetent, to Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, the "hero" Army general who swept in to clean up the mess.

Half a decade later, many officials have moved on. Here's a look at what's become of four of the most visible figures.

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown

Brown wants to clear something up: He did not think the government response to the disaster was going well when President Bush praised him on national TV and told him he was doing a "heck of a job."

"I remember telling the White House, 'I don't think you guys get it,' " he told ABC News this week.

Brown was forced to resign in September 2005, after becoming the public face of the government's botched response. Brown had repeatedly told reporters the government was carrying out its rescue and recovery efforts effectively, even as news cameras captured hungry people waiting for help on rooftops and in New Orleans' convention center, where authorities had instructed them to assemble.

Now though, all that is behind him. These days, he hosts "The Michael Brown Show," a conservative radio program out of Colorado. On his Aug. 23 show, Brown defended the aid the United States has pledged to help Pakistan recover from devastating floods:

"Groups in Pakistan are now complaining that even though we are the No. 1 supporter of aid to Pakistan for the floods ... Pakistan is complaining that we're not doing enough," Brown said. "Non-Muslim nations continue to bear the brunt of demonstrating the compassion and generosity that the petrodollar-glutted [Persian] Gulf nations won't."

Brown is also writing a book about Katrina, and will be broadcasting live from New Orleans today and Thursday to commemorate the anniversary.

Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore

There is a reason people refer to Honore as the "Ragin' Cajun." The iron-fisted Louisiana native was sent to take over for Brown, and is credited by many for bringing some semblance of order back to New Orleans.

In an interview that September, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin described Honore's skills: "Now, I will tell you this -- and I give the president some credit on this -- he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and his name is General Honore," Nagin told CNN. "And he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving. And he's getting some stuff done."

Now retired, Honore is available for speaking arrangements and is the author of the book "Survival: How a Culture of Preparedness Can Save You and Your Family From Disasters."

In a column marking the fifth anniversary, Honore wrote that the storm hit poor people especially hard. "Unfortunately, Katrina attacked the two poorest states in America, Mississippi and Louisiana," he wrote on CNN's website last week.

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin

In the first days after the storm, Nagin seemed to be in his element, lashing out at federal officials to "get off your asses and do something" to "fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country."

But questions about why he waited until 24 hours before the storm to order a mandatory evacuation -- and why he allowed the city's buses to sit idle when they could have been used to ferry citizens to safety -- began to fester.

And while Nagin was re-elected to a second term in 2006, he was widely criticized for racial comments he made in the year after the storm during a speech to commemorate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

"It's time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," he said. "This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be."

Now Nagin is out of office after serving the maximum two two-year terms -- and is on the speakers circuit with the booking agency Keppler Speakers. On the company's website, Nagin is described as a speaker with "first-person insight into the effective crisis management needed to lead New Orleans to recovery."

Former La. Gov. Kathleen Blanco

Most recently, Blanco applied lessons learned from Katrina to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Blanco, who was governor during the 2005 hurricane, said there was a "lack of response" to the spill by the government.

"It was so predictable," Blanco told The Associated Press on May 27. "Where was the oil going to go? It had no place to go but land. There definitely was a lack of response by all levels of government. That was the deja vu of Katrina."

In 2005, the governor's response to Katrina was assailed as inadequate and erratic, and she did not seek re-election. As officials struggled to regain control of the city in the days after the hurricane, the Democratic governor announced that she had called in National Guardsmen who were ready to "shoot and kill" looters, a comment that provoked more controversy.

"These troops are fresh back from Iraq, well trained, experienced, battle-tested and under my orders to restore order in the streets," she told reporters on Sept. 5, 2005, according to an Australian Broadcasting Corp. report at the time. "These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will."