I talked to the president twice today, once in Crawford and then again on Air Force One. He's obviously watching the television a lot, and he had some questions about the Dome, he's asking questions about reports of breaches. |
I think everyone in the country needs to take a big, collective, deep breath and recognize that there are a lot of people in this state, in Mississippi and Alabama who are living under conditions that, quite frankly, I doubt any reporter in this room is living under -- no food, no water, it's hot, it's sticky, their homes have been destroyed, they don't know where they're going to go next. |
I think I told him that we were realizing our worst nightmare, that everything we had planned about, worried about, that FEMA, frankly, had worried about for 10 years was coming true. |
I think the important thing to remember is in emergency management you prepare for the worst. Whether there had been a breach or topping of the levees you still need to be getting rescue people in there immediately. |
I think we're witnessing the dismantling of FEMA. |
I truly believed the White House was not at fault here, |
I understand people's frustrations. This has been an absolutely catastrophic disaster and so, we're doing absolutely everything we can to get the supplies into those folks. |
I understand that there are pockets where people have not gotten the basics, and we're working with the Coast Guard to get those, |
I understand the mayor's frustration, |
I understand their frustration and I understand these people are suffering, we are doing everything we can to make sure we take care of them. |
I usually don't go to church much so I get to spend time with God and hang out with friends. |
I very strongly personally regret that I was unable to persuade Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down, get over their differences and work together. I just couldn't pull that off. |
I was glad that we could do something to help. |
I was screaming, telling him, don't die, and that I'm sorry. |
I was still worried about it, because I knew what the potential was. But I think the president was speaking honestly at that point that he didn't really anticipate that they would be breached because of all this conflicting information. |