The best principle is not only to fight the last battle, ... In July we talked a lot about subways. In September we talked a lot about hurricanes. We still need to talk about aviation, about avian flu.
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It was midday Tuesday that I became aware of the fact that there was no possibility of plugging the gap and that essentially the lake was going to start to drain into the city. I think that second catastrophe really caught everybody by surprise,
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That 'perfect storm' of a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody's foresight,
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This is probably the worst catastrophe, or set of catastrophes certainly that I'm aware of in the history of the country. It was a devastating hurricane followed by a devastating flood,
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Unless it can be credibly established that a mobilizing Federal resource ... is not needed at the catastrophic incident venue, that resource deploys,
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But I think the bottom line right now is to take the constructive criticism and use that to build toward, as I say, the hurricane season that is 100 days away. And we don't have a lot of time to waste before we start to address that next set of challenges.
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It's really all hands on deck to deal with this storm,
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I think that that predication unhappily turned out to be correct and one of the things I said was we're racing the clock. Unfortunately, the hurricane beat us,
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[When Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown asserted on ABC News' Nightline last Thursday that he had only just learned of evacuees stranded at the city's convention centre, host Ted Koppel challenged:] Don't you guys watch television? ... a total failure.
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I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers, and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged the Bullet.
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One of the things we'll look at is why in the middle of this emerging crisis there was kind of a conflict on the information,
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Well, I'm not excusing the fact that planning and preparedness was not where it should be. We've known for 20 years about this hurricane, this possibility of this kind of hurricane.
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The Department of Defense took 40 years to get where it got.
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We totally understand what it's like to be sitting on top of a roof or to be sitting in a shelter where it's hot, where you're worried about when you're going to be picked up, where you're thirsty, where you're hungry,
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That would be hugely, hugely difficult, and require an enormous expenditure of resources.
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I've known Rob for many years; he is an outstanding public servant and will be greatly missed here at the department. I appreciate the commitment and service he has shown in directing our border security efforts.
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I appreciate his willingness to take on the vital task of leading FEMA during this challenging time.
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Admiral Allen has my full support in the very difficult work we have ahead,
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We make sure there are assurances in place in general. Sufficient to satisfy us that the deal is appropriate from a national security standpoint.
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From my own experience, I don't endorse those views,
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It is going to be about as ugly a scene as we've witnessed in this country, ... I really want to tell people that we have got some tough days ahead of us.
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Then first stage is, of course, life saving, ... We've made a lot of progress in that respect.
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once and for all .Ã?Å .Ã?Å . rather than simply going out and buying a lot of newfangled gadgets.
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Great nations, like good people, keep their word,
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but other parts of the system have nearly collapsed under the weight of numbers.
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Threats do not begin or end in a single country, ... must focus on common strategies and common systems of protection.
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I'm not going to judge others, ... I've got my own house to put in order.
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We're going to make sure help is on the way immediately to those who need it,
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There's not enough time to answer the first part of your question,
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We will have time to go back and do an after-action report, but the time right now is to look at what the enormous tasks ahead are,
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