CQ Transcriptswire

SPEAKERS: SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY MICHAEL CHERTOFF

[*] CHERTOFF: As you know if you followed the latest weather report, Hurricane Gustav is headed, I’d say at this point likely landfall somewhere between Vermilion Bay and New Orleans in Louisiana. Again, it’s possible this will change, but this is where most of the prediction seems to be centered. The storm is moving a little more quickly than we were seeing late yesterday, which means it will arrive within certainly 24 hours in terms of tropical storm winds. At the same time, that may benefit us a little bit by minimizing the strengthening.

We’re still looking, however, at what may be a low Category 4 or a high Category 3 storm.

And, again, you know, as with all storms, these can be tricky. These can change.

That means that we basically have the rest of Sunday to complete the evacuation of the coast of Louisiana, as well as evacuation activities in Texas and Mississippi.

I spoke to the president early this morning at some length about the state of preparations. He’s fully committed to throwing all of the assets of the federal government into this fight.

I was over at the FEMA headquarters talking to our DOD partners, General Renuart of Northcom, as well as our state partners in Louisiana. The main evacuation is going well. We are concerned because a number of the hospitals that originally planned to shelter in place have now decided they are going to actually try to evacuate their critically ill and medical needs patients. As a consequence, we’ve had to increase the tempo of our air flights into New Orleans in order to make sure that we can accommodate the flow. We’re going to be watching this very carefully today.

I spoke to my counterpart in Canada, Stockwell Day. The Canadians have released to us a number of aircraft that we are also going to be using to evacuate these special medical needs people. So this is going to be probably the most important challenge we’re going to be addressing during the course of the next 12 hours.

Again, I want to warn people that notwithstanding the predictions, the storm can still change, and, therefore, I would not have let people drop their guard in Mississippi or in parts of Texas simply because it looks like the main hurricane is going to be impacting in New Orleans.

Finally, remember, once the hurricane makes landfall, it continues to be a dangerous weather event. The prediction is it will move northwest across Louisiana into east Texas. There’s going to be a lot of rainfall. That means there can be localized flooding. And so we’re going to have to be following this carefully over the next several days.

So with that, I’ll take some questions.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, will you be staying in the region during the storm to ride it out?

CHERTOFF: I will.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) CHERTOFF: Well, I’ve actually lived through Katrina and any number of disasters over the last three and a half years, so I think I’m well trained and well prepared. I’m well supported in terms of my ability to communicate back to the president and back to Washington, so I’m comfortable that I’m not going to lose touch. And so I’m not worried about my own safety.

QUESTION: Can you speak to the situation with evacuations? (inaudible) available for New Orleanians, were you aware of any issues with that?

CHERTOFF: There was an issue where some of the contract buses apparently did not make their appearance. This is probably the case with almost any emergency, which is the plan -- as soon as you make contact with the enemy, the plan starts to suffer some alteration.

The good news here is that really good work with the state authorities allowed us to backfill on the buses, using school buses and other transportation. So the report I got this morning is that that was moving well.

But, again, we have backup capabilities, particularly military capabilities, should we need them.

I do want to emphasize the window is closing. Once you get tropical storm winds, there’s no more evacuation.

I’ve also heard reports that some people are still determined to try to ride the storm out in the coast. That strikes me as exceptionally foolish. I think the local authorities have made it very clear, and I saw them doing it this morning, that the National Guard will protect people’s property. People should heed the instructions to evacuate and protect their own lives.

So, you know, we’re prepared for the fact that we may have to improvise today if various elements of what we’re relying upon don’t live up to expectation. We’ve got some margin for doing that, but this is something that we’re literally -- we’ve been working on overnight and we’ll be working on all during the rest of the day, and I expect to get down to the evacuation areas myself later today to make sure that everybody is fully focused on this.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE). How likely is it that we can avoid the problems that Katrina posed?

CHERTOFF: Well, I think there’s no question that we’re doing much better than we did in Katrina. If you look at the evacuation, it’s begun a whole 24 to 36 hours earlier than Katrina. The preparations for people with medical needs, people without automobiles, I think we’ve already seen the benefit of that.

Every storm is different. This storm is going to come in differently than Katrina did. It’s going to move to the west of New Orleans. That’s actually bad news, because the most powerful part of the storm is actually the right side of the storm. So it’s going to be in some ways more challenging than Katrina, because there’s going to be a broader range of people who have to evacuate.

But, having worked over the last several days with the state and local authorities, I think they are well focused and well integrated with what we are doing.

Nevertheless, as I say, it’s going to be a very, very tough event. Depending on how strong the storm is, we’re going to see a different level of impact with respect to New Orleans itself and some of the coastal communities. If we wind up lucky and it’s a Category 3, then I anticipate we’re going to get less damage than a Category 4. We may not know what we’re going to have at landfall for, you know, some period of time, because, again, there’s some weather activity at high altitude that may yet affect the way in which the storm comes in.

So we’re prepared for the worst. We’re also prepared, frankly, to improvise, and we’ve got a plan B. What we need is the maximum level of cooperation from the individual public.

UNKNOWN: Final question, and then we’ve got to get going.

QUESTION: Secretary, during Katrina, (inaudible). Do you believe that you have that now, during (ph) and after?

CHERTOFF: Yes, I have to say we are -- we do have a unified command and control. We are embedded with the state. The state is embedded with us. There’s been no disconnect in terms of the ability to work together.

Like with any other emergency, you know, the people on the ground are the people who are going to have to accurately report what’s happening. That’s been going on so far.

When we have hitches -- and we’ve had some hitches -- we’ve been able to recover and adapt. And that’s really, over the next 48 hours, what the name of the game is.

It’s going to be to adapt to unforeseen emerging circumstances. That’s what an emergency is. And that’s what I’m going to go down to make sure we can do.

So I’m looking forward to getting down there so we can get our hands on the situation.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

CHERTOFF: Again, the levees are stronger than Katrina. I’ve seen the barrier at the 17th Street Canal. That is an effective barrier. However, if you get a Category 4 storm, there is a real likelihood of getting some overtopping.

Additionally, rain is a big factor here. Even if there’s no overtopping of the levees, rain will likely cause some flooding in New Orleans, so that’s why evacuation becomes critical.

And, again, we -- you know, we’ve got to hope the storm diminishes a little bit, but we have to be prepared for the worst. Thanks very much. We’ll see you down there.

END

.ETX

Aug 31, 2008 10:44 ET .EOF

Source: CQ Transcriptions

© 2008, Congressional Quarterly Inc., All Rights Reserved