US disaster chief quits; hurricane toll passes 500

NEW ORLEANS, Tuesday (Reuters) The head of the U.S. disaster agency resigned in the face of unrelenting criticism over Washington's response to Hurricane Katrina as the confirmed death toll from the calamity passed 500.

Michael Brown quit as chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency while President George W. Bush was winding up a two-day visit to New Orleans and other devastated areas.

Brown had been was removed three days earlier from direct control over recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast as complaints mounted that he came to the emergency too late with too little.

In an apparent nod to critics who said the agency needed more expertise at the top, the White House announced that David Paulison, a veteran firefighter who runs the agency's preparedness division, would take over as acting director.

Fifty-four percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's handling of the response to Katrina, according to two polls released on Monday - one by ABC News/Washington Post and the other by CNN/USA Today/Gallup.

Bush returned to Washington after rejecting charges that his administration responded to the Aug. 29 storm too slowly because most of the victims were black, or that the war in Iraq had cut into available manpower and resources.

"My attitude is this: The storm didn't discriminate and neither will the recovery effort. When those Coast Guard choppers ... were pulling people off roofs, they didn't check the color of a person's skin. They wanted to save lives," the president said.

He said it was "preposterous" to claim that the Iraq war had drained military resources, leaving too few troops to help with the hurricane. About 70,000 soldiers have been deployed in the region.

Bush rode in an open, flatbed military truck through flooded streets past damaged houses, downed trees and fetid, black and gray floodwaters. National Guard soldiers swept mud-covered thoroughfares and cleared debris before his visit.