This paper examines interpretations of the drought problem in Brazil's northeast sertão during the First Republic. It compares analysis of drought as primarily a natural or climatic phenomenon – embraced by civil engineers working for the Inspetoria [Federal] de Obras Contra as Secas (IFOCS) – with analyses emphasizing social and political conditions that made drought a crisis for the sertanejo poor. The latter are evident in the report of doctors Belisário Penna and Artur Neiva describing their expedition through the sertão sponsored by IFOCS in 1912. This comparison allows for consideration of the intersection between natural (geographic, climatic) and social (political, cultural) factors that produced the region's periodic crisis. The analysis is informed by the work of social scientists who highlight the multi-dimensional causes underlying natural disasters in politically marginal communities. Technocrats' faith in the context-independent utility of their expertise lay at the heart of IFOCS's ultimate failure to rescue sertanejos from famine, migration and poverty. Because the drought agency's technical personnel never had the political will or muscle to confront the social organization underlying the sertão's recurrent calamity, their ability to alleviate the human suffering that droughts precipitated was severely limited.