NEW ORLEANS — A week after President Bush hailed Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael D. Brown for doing "a heck of a job," Brown was ousted Friday as the administration's point man for the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort and replaced by a Coast Guard vice admiral.
The shakeup came as federal mortuary teams began moving street by street in New Orleans in search of the dead, and as New Orleans officials said they would hold off using force to evacuate several thousand residents.
Authorities said police and military troops had sighted far fewer corpses than expected on a recent house-by-house evacuation operation -- a hopeful sign that perhaps vast numbers had not died, as had been feared.
"There's nothing at all in the magnitude we anticipated," said Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, commander of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.
Corpse recovery was no longer being directly overseen by Brown, whom Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff abruptly ordered back to Washington. Taking Brown's place was Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, the Coast Guard's third in command.
Brown, who remains as FEMA's administrator, has taken withering criticism over the Bush administration's response to the hurricane.
Chertoff praised Brown, saying he had "done everything he possibly could to coordinate the federal response to this unprecedented challenge."
During a briefing in Baton Rouge, La., attended by Brown and Allen, Chertoff was conspicuously silent about complaints by Gulf Coast public officials that Brown was ill-prepared for Katrina and responded poorly to the ensuing mass displacement. Chertoff also did not address reports of embellished credentials in Brown's official government resume, which emerged hours before the sudden move.
White House officials said Bush planned a third tour of the flooded region Sunday. A week ago, during his first visit, Bush publicly backed Brown and dismissed criticism of him, saying: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
Bush made no reference Friday to Brown's reassignment.
Democrats continued to call for Brown's firing. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the FEMA director had not submitted his resignation and Bush had not requested it. "We are in a number of ways making changes and making adjustments to make sure where things aren't working, that they are working," McClellan said.
