[Friday] night we had 63,000 people staying in shelters and we expect three to four times that many tonight, |
As the water recedes there will be damage assessment. Family services go out to see what people have lost, helping to replace furniture, beds, etc. |
Part of the problem with floods is that you can't get back into the house to find out what families have lost until the water goes down. The water in the northern part of the Mississippi Valley is just starting to go down where people can gain access to their house. |
The mental fatigue is a factor. |
The mental fatigue is a factor. These floods are insipid ... it takes its toll. |
The nightmare we thought might happen before the hurricane hit appears to be developing. |
There's just a sense of rebuilding, not abandoning. That this is where we love. 'We love being on the river and we want to stay here'; 'We're not going to move out. |
This is the largest response in the history of the United States. |
We are looking now at a disaster above any magnitude that we've seen in the United States. We've been saying that the response is going to be the largest Red Cross response in the history of the organization. |
We can't tell you when food is going to be served. We don't know. We hope it will be in a couple of days. |
When I think of sleeping in the car ... I remember I'm in the presence of people who have no home. |