Chertoff: "exceptional response" to Katrina "a source of tremendous pride"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4779

Press Conference With Officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Justice Department, Defense Department, the National Guard Bureau, U.S. Coast Guard and FEMA

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
September 1, 2005

Secretary Chertoff: Good afternoon. At this time, we'd like to update you on the current situation in the Gulf Coast states that have been afflicted by Hurricane Katrina and talk specifically about what is being done to assist those people who are in distress.

Let me begin by saying, of course, all of our prayers and our hearts are with those people who are suffering, those who have been evacuated and are now facing the prospect of some time in the Astrodome or other shelters, those who are waiting to be evacuated.

And let me tell you, 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, where you're afraid for yourself or you're afraid for members of your family. There is no way a catastrophe can be minimized. I mean, this is a personal tragedy for everybody that's involved, those on the scene and the family members who are elsewhere as well.

We also understand it's not easy to look at the pictures of what's going on. You see, I think, 90,000 square miles of devastation, destruction, flooding, wind damage, whole communities that have been eradicated. We have to nevertheless proceed with our priorities in terms of how we deal with this unprecedented disaster.

And as President Bush made clear yesterday, our priorities are these: first, save lives; second, sustain lives by ensuring the necessary supplies of food, water, shelter, and medical supplies; and third, execute a comprehensive recovery effort to bring this area and these people back to the prosperity and the enjoyment of life that they're entitled to.

Now, let me emphasize, from the very beginning and as we speak, rescue operations have continued and are continuing in full force. The Coast Guard estimates that it has rescued approximately 3,000 people stranded in various flood areas, in particular in New Orleans and surrounding parishes. At the same time, we are continuing with our evacuation program; that is ongoing. And we're going to continue to increase the tempo of that program until we've cleared people out of the Superdome and we've cleared people out of New Orleans. And then we can begin the process again of cleaning the city and building up again.

What I'm going to do is talk a little bit about what we have underway by way of the total federal relief effort. I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about security issues as they appear to be in the city of New Orleans, and also talking about the situation at the Superdome where we have a massive evacuation effort underway.

First of all, we remain in very close contact with state and local authorities to make sure they're getting every assistance they require. I've spoken on a regular basis with Governor Blanco and Governor Barbour and Governor Riley. Just today, President Bush responded to the requests of these governors to waive the cost share requirement for emergency response activities. That means that the federal share of the costs will increase from the current 75 percent to a full 100 percent.

Before Hurricane Katrina had even fallen -- had made landfall, the President declared emergencies in these areas, and that allowed us to preposition and start to distribute resources in the affected areas. We prepositioned 18 disaster medical teams, medical supplies and equipment, urban search and rescue teams. All of these were prestaged, along with millions of meals ready to eat, liters of water, tarpaulins, and truckloads of ice. By prepositioning these resources, we were able to speed our ability to deliver these necessary supplies.

In addition, we continue to pour in additional supplies every hour in this area -- massive quantities of water, ice, and food, 5.6 million MREs, over 13 million liters of water, thousands of generators, blankets and cots. We've deployed more than 50 disaster medical teams, and 28 urban search and rescue teams with nearly 1,800 personnel who have rescued, as I said, hundreds of victims and continue to provide medical care to survivors.

I want to take a moment to explain one of the unusual challenges of this disaster. Unlike other hurricanes we've seen where the destruction occurs, the hurricane leaves, and then we can come back into a stable area, this was really two disasters. There was the initial hurricane, and then there followed the flood. The act of flooding and the continued challenge of dealing with water levels that can be anywhere from three to four to eight feet have dramatically impeded our ability to actually get these supplies into New Orleans. This has really created a double challenge. We're not only confronting the original disaster of the hurricane, we're confronting the ongoing disaster of the flooding.

For those who wonder why it is that it is difficult to get these supplies and these medical teams into place, the answer is they are battling an ongoing dynamic problem with the water. We're hoping as we turn that around, that is going to ease the problem, and of course, the key to resolving the problem is to finally move the people out of New Orleans.

Other federal agencies, of course, beside DHS, have been very actively involved in providing aid. The Department of Health and Human Services has declared a public health emergency for the affected areas and is establishing a network of 40 medical shelters that will have a 10,000 bed capacity and a staff of 4,000 to care for victims. And as you know, yesterday, EPA and the Department of Energy took steps to alleviate the pressures that this disaster has placed on our nation's food supply.

Now of course, a critical element of what we're doing is the process of evacuation and securing New Orleans and other areas that are afflicted. And here, the Department of Defense has performed magnificently, as has the National Guard in bringing enormous resources and capabilities to bear in the areas that are suffering.

With that in mind, let me talk in particular about two things that I think are going to be of interest to everybody. First of all, what is the situation at the Superdome? We began evacuating yesterday evening from the Superdome. At this point in time, 1,500 special needs people and approximately 2,000 general population have, in fact, been evacuated from the Superdome. The special needs people go to medical facilities; the general population people are going to Houston.

We have had 200 buses that have already left carrying people like the special needs or general population to their destination. We have an additional 200 buses that have arrived that we are in the process of loading, and the Governor has ordered 500 school buses from around the state that are on the way. Each regular bus has a capacity of approximately 35 to 40 people. The school buses, I think, carry 75 people. This gives us a capacity to move large numbers of people, and as we get more buses, the tempo of that movement will continue to increase.

The fact of the matter is, the Superdome is secure. Understandably, there are crowd control issues. People are anxious, they're impatient, they're hot, they're tired, they want to get some place else. That is more than understandable. The National Guard has several hundred people present. The city police are present. They are managing the crowds. There was a shooting incident yesterday. The incident was resolved with a leg wound to a National Guardsman and the subsequent arrest of the person who was involved in the shooting.

In the city at large, we're obviously very concerned to make sure that good order is maintained. There have been isolated incidents of criminality. We've all seen pictures of looting. But let me tell you that we have a tremendous array of forces that are currently deployed in New Orleans.

As we speak, in addition to local law enforcement, we have 2,800 National Guard in New Orleans as we speak today; 1,400 additional National Guard military police trained soldiers will be arriving every day -- 1,400 today, 1,400 tomorrow and 1,400 the next day.

In effect, what that does is it adds the entire membership number of the New Orleans Police Force every day to the pool of security personnel who are in New Orleans. We will have more than quadrupled -- using National Guard -- more than quadrupled the number of security personnel who are available to maintain order in the city. I have spoken to the Governor, spoken to the -- General Honore, who is the general in command of the joint task force. Everybody is confident of the ability to maintain order, and is committed to continuing to do so as we finish up the evacuation operations.

We are also, by the way, mindful of the situation in Mississippi. There, of course, we don't have the extensive flooding, but we have destruction of a number of coastal communities. We've been talking to Governor Barbour. There are substantial National Guard personnel on the ground in Mississippi assisting and maintaining order there.

As of last night, there were 2,700 National Guard in Mississippi. By the end of today, there will be 6,000. And ultimately, we envision 9,500 National Guard deployed in various places in Mississippi. So with these National Guard forces, hundreds of law enforcement people who are coming into New Orleans from other parts of Louisiana and other parts of the country, we are going to have a security force present in New Orleans and in Mississippi that is many, many times the usual police force that you see on a normal day.

With these security forces in place, with the National Guard and the police in place, we will expeditiously finish the task of evacuating the remainder of the population of New Orleans that has to be removed. We will get them to shelter, and then we will begin the somewhat longer-term process of getting them into a permanent place of residence, or a semi-permanent place of residence, and draining the water, starting to clean New Orleans, and then moving on with reconstruction.

We're going to have reports from a number of other people here. I'm going to first call on Attorney General Gonzales. And then Assistant Secretary McHale from the Defense Department; General Blum, who is the head of the National Guard Bureau; Admiral Whitehead from the Coast Guard; and Patrick Rhode, who is the Deputy Director of FEMA, will all be speaking to you.

Let me remind everybody that this is without a doubt still a very, very dangerous situation on the ground in these areas. We encourage people not to engage in self-help, not to try to go back and see what the circumstances are with respect to their houses or possessions.

We also know that many, many people want to contribute. For guidance as to how to contribute to this effort to clean up and rebuild in New Orleans, and to address the urgent needs of the people who have been suffering, please go to the FEMA website, www.FEMA.gov, or the American Red Cross website, www.RedCross.org.

The recovery from this hurricane will take many months and it will take the spirit and the willpower not only of the citizens of the communities that were afflicted, but of every single American. We have met this challenge when there have been disasters overseas. We will meet this challenge in a disaster of this magnitude in our own country. All of wish, I know, Godspeed and good luck to those who are suffering. We will work as quickly as possible to remove you from the scene and finish the process of recovery and restoration. Thank you.

Attorney General Gonzales: As Secretary Chertoff said, security is a concern. It is a priority. And I think one message that I would like to leave today for the American people is that the Department of Justice, working with state and local officials, will do everything that we can do to assure law and order in the affected areas.

We have to be successful in this endeavor because if we're not successful, it makes our job in terms of evacuation and providing relief even more dangerous and more difficult. And for that reason, it is a priority for the Department of Justice. Secretary Chertoff has already indicated that we have devoted, working with state and local officials, there will be a great number of additional security forces brought into the area. But in addition to that, the Department of Justice is working closely with state and local officials, providing whatever technical assistance that we can, providing the resources that we legally can.

We're working to ensure that all federal facilities, DOJ federal facilities are fully protected. We're working with the court officials to help them in relocating. They will have to find new quarters to work out of in New Orleans. We're going to make monies available -- additional grant monies available for law enforcement purposes.

And so we're looking at a variety of ways, and I've tasked the component heads within the Department of Justice to look to see what additional resources can be brought to bear to provide additional assistance in New Orleans and any affected area.

We're also, of course, looking very closely at the issue of fraud, charities -- fraudulent charities. We're looking at price-gouging. I've asked the lawyers in the Department to be as aggressive and to be as creative, within the bounds of the law, to ensure that people do not take advantage of the situation in this tragic circumstance.

And so the Department of Justice is doing what we can to ensure that law and order remains in the affected area. And we -- because of this tragedy, as Mike indicated, it represents some unique challenges. And it's difficult work ahead, but I'm confident that we'll have the situation under control within a reasonable period of time.

Assistant Secretary McHale: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My words will echo those of the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the Attorney General. It is a fundamental responsibility of government at every level -- local, state and federal -- to ensure the physical safety of our fellow citizens.

For the past 125 years, approximately, it has been the public policy of our nation, reflected in numerous statutes, but most particularly the posse comitatus statute, that our active duty military forces ordinarily do not engage in law enforcement activity. We've decided, as a matter of public policy, that our police officers will normally protect us. Our law enforcement officials will provide the security that we reasonably expect. And so, in this circumstance, and all circumstances, we turn, first and foremost, to civilian law enforcement to protect the American people.

The Department of Defense does have statutory authority to provide assistance, military support to civilian law enforcement authorities, and that often involves training and equipment and other forms of assistance that enable police officers to better do their jobs.

And under truly extraordinary circumstances, occurring once in a generation typically, when there's a civil disturbance, the President does have the legal authority to make certain declarations and use the active duty military to restore civil order. And so there are things that we in the Department of Defense can do to contribute to that climate of safety and security.

But more often than not, when military support is needed to ensure the effective execution of a law enforcement function, it is the National Guard, rather than the active duty military, that is more useful. Frankly, our National Guard, in many cases, is better trained. The National Guard is forward deployed throughout the nation. Our Guardsmen, men and women, are of the communities that they serve. Often they have ties to local law enforcement; certainly they have ties to local families and businesses in the community to be protected. Moreover, the National Guard is exempt from posse comitatus, and the National Guard can work side by side, therefore, with law enforcement officials in ways in which active duty military forces cannot.

For this reason, we have been planning very closely with the adjutants general, the governors, the Guard Bureau and others for the possibility of a coordinated effort that would involve the use of National Guard forces to augment and re-enforce civilian law enforcement.

I want to highlight at this moment a statistic that was given to you, I think a rather remarkable and historically unprecedented statistic that was voiced by Secretary Chertoff just a moment ago, and that is, over the next three days the National Guard, through the cooperation of the governors, and ultimately under the command and control of the Governor of Louisiana, will be deploying into the New Orleans area a force the size of the New Orleans Police Department each day, every day, for the next three days. That is a remarkable movement of law enforcement capabilities into an area that clearly needs augmentation and reenforcement of the ordinary civilian law enforcement capability.

What I'd like to do is call to the microphone now General Blum, Steve Blum, who is the chief of the Guard Bureau, who will talk about the military policemen who will be deployed into the New Orleans area to ensure that, in a close partnership of civilian law enforcement, we successfully protect our fellow citizens.

General Blum.

General Blum: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. The first thing I'd like to say is that these citizen soldiers and airmen that will be arriving -- 1,400 in the next 24 hours, 1,400 thereafter and 1,400 there again -- are trained professionals. These are not some people with the wrong skill sets that are forced into augmenting, amplifying and re-enforcing and assisting and supporting the established civilian law enforcement apparatus that remains in effect in Louisiana, and in New Orleans, in particular.

These are trained professionals. They are military police trained, badge-carrying law enforcement officers that discharge their duties when called to active duty, both here at home or overseas. Many of these people are civilian law enforcement officers; when they are not in military uniforms, they're in civilian law enforcement uniforms. So they come with great expertise and great sensitivity to the fact that they are there in support of the existing law enforcement agency.

This is, not as it has been erroneously reported, martial law. It is not that at all. This is helping a police force that is overstretched with this extraordinary challenge that it's facing. So we are bringing law enforcement officers from around the country that are in the military of the National Guard, in state active duty roles, where their governors have sent them to Governor Blanco on her request, through the Emergency Mutual Assistance Compact. And then those of you that are really astute will say, well, there's no law enforcement provision in the EMAC, so there is a separate agreement between the donor governors -- the governors sending these forces -- and Governor Blanco receiving these forces, where the governors have signed that they have an agreement between the states to allow the law enforcement officers of one state National Guard to work for the Louisiana National Guard in this case, for a period of time.

We are never in charge. The military is not in charge, and not foreseen to be in charge in any respect or manner during the rest of the duration of this particular hurricane recovery operation. The National Guard will be there with what Secretary Chertoff requests from the Department of Defense, the support that is vetted through the vetting process with the Joint Staff. And if the Secretary's requests are deemed to be something that we can fulfill and are appropriate, we will be there with what they ask for, for as long as they need it.

And I think the greatest thing I can say about this is that before it is over you will see National Guard soldiers and airmen from the Air National Guard and the Army National Guard from every state and territory in our nation responding to this national catastrophe. I think that sends a very strong message that when you call out the National Guard you call out America.

Thank you.

Admiral Whitehead: Good afternoon. I'd like to give you an update today on the Coast Guard operations in the Gulf area. Of course, our primary focus remains search and rescue. And to date, we've rescued from rooftops and from streets over 2,900 people, and that number is probably up just since I left my office. These were by Coast Guard air crews. And then in addition, we're working very closely with our partners, with the Marine Corps, the Air National Guard, and the Navy as well.

Our secondary focus in the whole Gulf area is the safety of ports and waterways and, in particular, reconstituting offshore oil infrastructure. Our forces out there now are constantly growing. Right now, we have over 57 aircraft -- Coast Guard aircraft that are in the Gulf area that are performing search and rescue predominantly, but also delivering food and water. And in addition, we have 27 Coast Guard cutters. These are ships that are in excess of 65 feet, some going to 210 feet, in the Gulf area. We also have three 210 foot medium-endurance cutters that are en route the area. We have seven buoy tenders, which are specialized vessels designed to deploy buoys so we can reconstitute the waterway systems. We have seven in the area now, and there are five more that are en route to the New Orleans area. And in addition, we have three-eighths of the navigation teams that are going to the Mobile area.

Ports right now, most of the ports in the Gulf remain closed. However, in a good note, I think, both Pensacola, Mobile, and as of this morning, the port of New Orleans is open to shallow draft traffic only. That is not where we want to be, but it's a step in the right direction because most of the traffic in those areas that are carrying fuel, those sorts of products are in shallow draft barges.

I should also mention that since the topic is law enforcement, that the Coast Guard is unique among the Armed Services in that we are both a member of the Armed Services, but by statute, the Coast Guard are -- Coast Guard members are also law enforcement officers, and that is for every Coast Guard member who is a petty officer, or a non-commissioned officer you might know it as, or officers. So we do have -- we do have that. And we have very broad authority, essentially, as well. And we can assist in any way requested federal, state and local law enforcement officials, and we would look to do that in any way we possibly can.

Acting Deputy Director Rhode: Good afternoon. FEMA was in theater long before this storm arrived, and FEMA will be in theater well after this early phase of the response has completely gotten it away to its fullest extent.

It's important to note, and the Secretary made mention of the fact that there are massive amounts of commodities in the region. Urban search and rescue teams are in the region, Disaster Medical Assistance Teams are in the region. There is no question that in any sort of a comprehensive response phase that there are always some little bumps along the road. We recognize that. It's very important that the citizens in these impacted areas exercise, as difficult as it is, exercise as much patience as they possibly can. We understand that you're there, we understand you're suffering. We're trying to get to you as best as we possibly can. There are massive amounts of FEMA boots in the entire federal family that are right now on the ground looking for you, looking to assist you as best as we possibly can. This is the first of many, many long days, and it's important that we all recognize that so we can do everything we possibly can on behalf of the citizens in this impacted region.

Thank you.

Secretary Chertoff: I think with that, we'll take a few questions.

Question: I guess my first question, can you give the public a sense of how many people may yet be out there, still need to be rescued?

Secretary Chertoff: Well, let me distinguish between those who have to be rescued and those who have to evacuated. I can't give you a figure on the rescues. As I told you, Coast Guard has rescued 3,000 approximately to now; local law enforcement has rescued several thousand. We're not going to know until the water recedes a little bit whether we have identified all the people who may be in attics and may need a little bit of space to come out and get on the roof, or whether people are waiting until the water goes down lower and they can step outside and get to waist or chest-level water.

So we are continuing to search 24-7. We search at day, we search at night, and we're going to continue to do it until we're satisfied that we've identified everybody that needs to be rescued.

Now, the second issue is evacuation. What we do is, when we rescue people, or when we encounter people, we direct them to various evacuation sites around the city. Those sites have water and food and other necessities, and the idea is to have people stage there until we get vehicles to take them out.

A large number of people, frankly, have, on their own, decided they want to make their way to the Superdome. One of the challenges we face is that, as we pull people out of the Dome and evacuate them, additional people come. We certainly would encourage people, if they have a choice, to find another evacuation site to head themselves towards, because I think that will spread out the operation a little bit more.

But whatever it takes, whether they're at the Superdome or whether they're at other staging areas or whether they're on roofs waving flags, we are going to find them, we're going to rescue them and we're going to get them to safety.

Question: But I guess my question is, is it your sense that there are hundreds that still need to be rescued, or thousands?

Secretary Chertoff: I'd be guessing. I mean, a thousand seems like a very large number, but we have already rescued several thousand. Hopefully, most people have gotten themselves onto roofs and have been picked up. But, as I said, rather than give you a guesstimate, I can tell you that as long as there is someone on a roof waving a flag, we're going to be sending a helicopter out there to get them.

Question: There have been reports of shootings at helicopters or in other areas that have caused FEMA personnel to stand down, at least temporarily. Can you give us a sense of how widespread that level of violence is and exactly what's being done to deter that?

Secretary Chertoff: Well, I spoke to General Honore, I spoke to Mike Brown, who is on the ground, and to our particular -- our specific federal coordinating officer. We know there's been some isolated criminal misbehavior. I haven't actually received a confirmed report of someone firing on a helicopter. Where we have indications that there is danger in a particular area, we're careful to make sure we go in only when we have adequate security and protection. But I want to emphasize this: We have been operating rescue missions every minute, from the time we first got in there after the hurricane passed up to and including the present moment.

Question: Mr. Secretary, two questions. One is, are you satisfied that you have enough Guard forces there? And secondly, how long do you think it will take to evacuate --

Secretary Chertoff: I'm satisfied that we have not only more than enough forces there and on the way. And frankly, what we're doing is we are putting probably more than we need in order to send an unambiguous message that we will not tolerate lawlessness or violence or interference with the evacuation.

Now, the vast majority of people in New Orleans only want to save themselves and their families; they're not interested in making trouble. It appears that always in any large group you get a few people who do want to make trouble. We're not going to tolerate trouble. And there's going to be a sufficient show of force through the police and through the properly trained National Guard to make it clear to anybody who's thinking of stirring something up that they are not going to be able to get away with it.

The evacuation itself, I think, is a function of, again, the total number of people, how quickly we are able to get to them, given the existing state of flooding. We are seeking to get the Superdome cleared as quickly as possible. We're hoping to get it done within the next 24 hours. Again, that will depend partly on conditions. The more people that go to the Superdome, the more people we're going to have to take out. So that's obviously also part of the process. But we're also going to be attentive to other areas.

Let me say, by the way, that I know there are hospitals that have patients who need care. We have been very focused on evacuating them. We do prioritize, meaning that we go to hospitals and take the most critically needy out first, and then work our way down as -- we get the people who are sick, but perhaps not in a life-threatening situation.

And, in fact, yesterday, I happened to see on TV someone was calling from a hospital and complaining they weren't being picked up. And I called the operation center and I said, are you guys on top of this, and they said they were, and they made it clear that they, again, have a process in place which sets priorities and they're following that process.

Question: You hope to have the Superdome evacuated within a day?

Secretary Chertoff: Within 24 hours. Again, when I say "we hope," obviously there are a lot of conditions. And one of the conditions is, of course, the more people who go, the more buses we're going to need and the longer it's going to take. But that's what we're shooting for.

Question: What about the public health situation? If the people who are out in search and rescue are forced to pass up all the dead bodies and not take care of them, isn't that increasing the problem of health problems? And do you have an estimate of the fatalities?

Secretary Chertoff: I don't have an estimate of the fatalities. In an ideal world, we would pick up and dispose of any cadavers. We're not in an ideal world. Again, you have to -- in this kind of situation, you have to set priorities. Save the living is the first priority. Get them to shelter, get them food and water, is the second priority.

We do have to clean the city up. We do have to be mindful about public health. That's why we are flowing large numbers of medical assets and public health assets into the area. But again, as long as we have large bodies of standing water, it's going to be a challenge to address the cleanup, and we want to get the people out first.

Question: Mr. Chertoff, one question, please. Your priorities, to many people, seem consecutive rather than concurrent. And to people who are waiting for aid, they think that you're just out saving lives instead of bringing them relief. How can you resolve that --

Secretary Chertoff: Actually, it's a good question, because that would be a misimpression. In fact, we do do a lot of things at once. Our first priority, as I say, is rescue. But of course, not everybody is involved in rescue. So as we have helicopters doing rescue and boats doing rescue, we are simultaneously bringing thousands and thousands of liters of water, thousands and thousands of MREs, doctors, medical supplies into areas where people are waiting.

So, for example, when the helicopters go over the city and they see people who are in distress, they make sure they pick those people up. They may see the other people who are stranded but are basically at a place where they are safe. Those people will be given food and water and they may be told to stay for a while; we may not pick them up right away. But we'll make sure that they have the necessities they need in order to remain safe and secure in that place.

At the same time that we're doing this we're also, obviously, taking people to shelter in the Astrodome, we're taking people to shelter in other places. We are doing all these things at the same time. But again, when we have to face a choice, we want to have a clear sense of priorities in mind about life and limb being the most important thing.

Question: Do you think that FEMA should have had buses available for the evacuation at the time the evacuation order was first declared? And secondly, obviously here and now in retrospect, but did DHS and FEMA under estimate this and not have sufficient resources on the ground?

Secretary Chertoff: Actually, I think there was an extraordinary effort to put resources on the ground and pre-position them. As I said, the President declared states of emergency before the hurricane made landfall. So that enabled us not only to put large quantities of water and food and tarpaulins and generators in place, but it also allowed us to actually start flowing that out in advance. But then there comes a point where you're in the storm. And this has been a unique disaster in that we really had two disasters one after the other. We had the storm, but then before we could come in and begin the rescue effort and the evacuation effort and the effort to address people's needs, we had a second catastrophe. That was the levee breaking and the flood coming in.

That has been the principal problem getting the issue of evacuation addressed. We've had to contend with the fact that it's very difficult to move around. The flooding has also had an impact on the availability of buses. It's had an impact on the availability of gas and drivers. We've had to go out and augment what we already had to deal with this additional situation.

You know, in some ways every crisis, whether it be a natural catastrophe or a man-made catastrophe, illustrates the point that preparation is of the utmost importance, and yet even after perfect preparation, the beginning of the catastrophe immediately starts to change the facts on the ground and you have to adapt.

I think the genius of the people who are working here, the genius of the people of FEMA, the people in the National Guard, the people in the Coast Guard is, they have been marvelously adaptable. They have brought, for example, airlift capabilities and air rescue capabilities to bear in a way that I don't think we've ever seen in this country before. And so I think it is a source of tremendous pride to me to work with people who have pulled off this really exceptional response.

Question: Mr. Secretary, can we get a couple more questions, please, sir? We were held outside for an hour and we were just allowed in. A number of us have just come from Scott McClellan's briefing, which is why we were held outside. He said you would give us specific figures on the ballpark costs, how many people were displaced, and specifically what offers of international aid had been made and what had been accepted.

Secretary Chertoff: Okay, sure. I can only be as specific as the data allows me. You asked about money. This is going to be very expensive. I think we have probably obligated or spent over a couple of a billion with a "b" dollars. When I say obligated, that means we've entered into contracts we're going to have to pay for. That is clearly extraordinary, and although I can't predict what future expenditures are going to be, it gives you a measure of the kind of resources that are involved.

In terms of people displaced, they fall into two categories. You have people who heeded the mandatory evacuation order or who voluntarily evacuated who have left and gone to hotels or motels or to relatives. First of all, we will be assisting people. We have rental assistance, they have other forms of aid that will help them go through the next weeks and months. I can't estimate what that is, but I would have to -- with precision, but I would have to say we've got to be talking about hundreds of thousands of people, if you consider all the communities involved.

Then you have those people who are in the process of being evacuated. We started out at the Superdome with probably around 10,000 people. We've been pulling people out and yet more people have come. I would say it's probably in the neighborhood of 20,000 to 30,000 now. Again, I would guess that there -- based upon the population figures in New Orleans, that there are comparable numbers or more in New Orleans, and then you have the surrounding parishes.

So I think ultimately we're talking about dislocations of hundreds of thousands of people, and that will be a challenge for this country on a par with some of the great tragedies we've seen overseas.

Speaking of overseas, we have gotten, I believe, offers of assistance from other countries. I spoke to the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada the day of the hurricane; she offered her assistance. Germany has offered assistance, England has offered assistance. Dozens and dozens of countries have offered assistance.

We're coordinating those offers through the Department of State. Obviously we want to make sure that what we get is what we can use, that we proceed in an orderly way. But much as we have come to the aid of the rest of the world when others have been in jeopardy, so the world has responded to us.

[RagAss]

1. Just my usual.....

"Insert Repug lackey name here"....Go Fuck yourself !

[msongs]

2. they will REPEAT this until people believe it is the TRUTH ->

the repubs know how to do it and the media and DEMS do not have a clue in a million years how to deflect.

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[deutsey]

3. My wife knows someone who worked for Homeland Security

and did disaster analysis/preparedness for it. He told her he is far from proud about what has happened. In fact, he's embarrassed and mortified, especially since he was one of the authors of recommendations about a category 5 hurricane hitting NO.

He said he and others have been pleading with the federal gov't to prepare for such an event as this, to have plans prepared for evacuating the poor from the city BEFORE a hurricane hit, to be prepared to take care of the drug addicts in the city because they will resort to violence, and on and on.

He also confided that he believed the lack of response was racially motivated.

[wtmusic]

6. good info

any chance of posting the recommendations? Word should be out.

[MichiganVote]

4. Wait for two things people- extended interviews w/ victims

and the body count. Expect the repub's to repress the true numbers.

[applegrove]

5. I don't think freepers can process that many alphabetical units in one go.

[bribri16]

7. Remember, they make their own reality. n/t