[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book II)]
[September 14, 2008]
[Pages 1199-1200]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following a Briefing on Hurricane Ike Recovery Efforts
September 14, 2008

    I want to thank senior members of the administration for coming in 
this Sunday morning to discuss Hurricane Ike. I was on the phone to--
with Secretary Chertoff before coming into 
this meeting. The Secretary went down yesterday. He gave me a briefing 
from Austin; he'll be heading into Houston. This is all part of our 
efforts to help Texas and Louisiana with a focused, effective recovery 
effort.
    Administrator Paulison briefed us on 
how we're doing on our priorities. First priority is search and rescue, 
and I want to thank the people at the Federal and State levels for 
working so hard to rescue our fellow citizens from harm's way. Rescue 
efforts continue on as we speak.
    I do urge people in the affected areas to listen closely to local 
authorities before they attempt to get back home. There are people now 
surveying damage, people reporting in to the State as to the conditions 
there in the different communities. And it's very important for 
citizens, who I know are anxious to get home, to take your time and 
listen, take the advice of the local folks.
    Our priorities, along with the State and local folks, is to make 
sure electricity gets up as quickly as possible. Secretary 
Bodman gave us a briefing on the outages. 
Interestingly enough, some electricity is already being restored in 
Houston, I'm told. And I do want to thank the utility companies for 
working hard to get electricity up. And to the extent that you need help 
on stringing lines, I'm confident other utility companies from around 
the country will help provide manpower.
    Secretary Chertoff and David 
Paulison tell me that the Federal 
Government will be providing 1\1/2\ million liters of water a day and 1 
million meals a day to help the people who have been displaced. That'll 
of course be coordinated with Governor Perry's office and the State of Texas, as well as the mayors.
    One of the things that's very important for the city of Houston and 
the other cities is to get the water up and running, the sewage plants 
running. And that'll be a priority of ours to help them. And finally, 
debris removal, it's very important that our Corps of Engineer, working 
with local officials, implements a coordinated debris removal plan.
    And so that's what we discussed this morning. This is a tough storm, 
and it's one that is going to be--it's going to require time for people 
to recover.
    As well, the Secretary of Energy 
briefed us on, you know, preliminary reports on gasoline production, 
pipeline distribution. And it's a little early to fully assess where we 
stand, although I can say that, you know, one of the plant--one of the 
pipelines coming out of the Gulf Coast area is running--the Plantation 
Pipeline. And we are watching very carefully as to when the Colonial 
Pipeline can get up and running.
    In the meantime, as I mentioned yesterday, in coordination with the 
Department of Energy, we suspended--and the EPA--we suspended 
reformulated gasoline rules so it would make it easier to import 
gasoline from abroad so as to take pressure off of our consumers.
    And I repeat what I said yesterday, that the Federal Government, 
along with State governments, will be monitoring very carefully as to 
whether or not consumers are being mistreated at the pump, in other 
words, gouged. It's very important for our fellow citizens, during the 
period of temporary disruption, to be treated fairly.
    And so I'm considering--have considered my plans over the weekend, 
and I will be going down to Texas on Tuesday to express

[[Page 1200]]

the Federal Government's support--sympathy on the one hand and support 
on the other to--for this recovery effort and rebuilding effort.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 7:50 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. J. Richard Perry of 
Texas.