[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 37 (Monday, September 19, 2005)]
[Pages 1382-1385]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and an Exchange With 
Reporters in New Orleans, Louisiana

September 12, 2005

    The President. I want to thank the Governor for joining us today and 
thank the mayor for joining us. My impression of New Orleans is this, 
that there is a recovery on the way. There's progress being made, but 
there's a lot of serious and hard work that's yet to be done.
    I was briefed today about the search and rescue that continues. I 
was also briefed about the different projects that are taking place. 
There's a containment of an oil spill. The electricity is beginning to 
be turned back on. The mayor is anxious, of course, to get parts of the 
city up and running, but he's also mindful that there's a lot of work to 
be done for that to happen.
    General Honore and Admiral Allen briefed us as well about the close 
coordination between the Federal Government, State government, and local 
government, all aimed at solving problems. And we just came through an 
area that had had substantial water in it, and the dewatering is an 
indication that the city is moving forward. But I'll repeat, we got a 
lot of work to do, a whole lot of work to do. And my pledge again to the 
Governor and the mayor is, the Federal Government will work closely in 
coordination with their authorities.
    You know, one of the things that the people are beginning to think 
about is the long-term revival of New Orleans, for example, or the 
surrounding parishes. My attitude is this: The people of New Orleans can 
design the vision; the people of New Orleans can lay out what New 
Orleans ought to look like in the future; and the Federal Government 
will help. The people of Louisiana can lay out their vision of what 
Louisiana will look like, and the Federal Government can help. I think 
the best policy is one in which the Federal Government doesn't come down 
and say, ``Here's what your city will look like.'' The best policy is 
one where the local folks say, ``Here's what we want our city to look 
like, and let's work together to achieve that vision.''
    And so I--as we're beginning to get through this recovery phase and 
the rescue phase and the transitional phase--recovery phase--we're 
beginning to think through the--how to reconstitute this really 
important State as well as along the Mississippi coast, as well.
    At any rate, again, I want to thank you all for being here. I 
appreciate you taking time out.
    I'll answer a couple of questions. Yes.

Allegations of Racism

    Q. Sir, what do you make of some of the comments that have been made 
by quite a number of people that there was a racial component to some of 
the people that were left behind and left without help?
    The President. My attitude is this: The storm didn't discriminate, 
and neither will the recovery effort. When those Coast Guard choppers, 
many of whom were first on the scene, were pulling people off roofs, 
they didn't check the color of a person's skin. They wanted to save 
lives.
    I can assure people from the--and I know from the State and local 
level as well that this recovery is going to be comprehensive. The 
rescue efforts were comprehensive, and the recovery will be 
comprehensive.

Learning From Relief Efforts

    Q. Mr. President, does the Federal Government need the authority to 
come in earlier or even in advance of a storm that threatening?
    The President. I think that's one of the interesting issues that 
Congress needs to take a look at. And it's really important that as we 
take a step back and learn lessons, that we are in a position to 
adequately answer

[[Page 1383]]

the question, are we prepared for major catastrophes, that the system is 
such that we're able to work closely together and that----
    Q. Do you recommend that Congress consider allowing the Federal 
Government to act more quickly?
    The President. I think it's very important for Congress to take a 
good, close look at what went on, what didn't go on, and come up with a 
series of recommendations. And my attitude is, is that we need to learn 
everything we possibly can; we need to make sure that this country is 
knitted up as well as it can be, in order to deal with significant 
problems and disasters. Meantime, we've got to keep moving forward.
    And I know there's been a lot of second-guessing. I can assure you, 
I'm not interested in that. What I'm interested in is solving problems. 
And there will be time to take a step back and to take a sober look at 
what went right and what didn't go right. There's a lot of information 
floating around that will be analyzed in an objective way, and that's 
important. And it's important for the people of this country to 
understand that all of us want to learn lessons. If there were to be a 
biological attack of some kind, we've got to make sure we understand the 
lessons learned, to be able to deal with catastrophe.

Iraq/Hurricane Katrina

    Q. Will what is needed to get this area back on its feet have any 
impact on the timing of troop withdrawals in Iraq?
    The President. In Iraq?
    Q. Yes.
    The President. We've got plenty of troops to do both. Let me just 
talk about that again. I've answered this question before, and you can 
speak to General Honore if you care to. He's the military man on the 
ground. It is preposterous to claim that the engagement in Iraq meant 
there wasn't enough troops here, just pure and simple.
    Do you care to comment on that?
    Lieutenant General Honore. Well, we have about 90,000 members of the 
Reserve and National Guard deployed, of a total force of approximately 
400,000. So 90,000 are deployed. We've got the capability. We're here. 
We're demonstrating in deed every day. We're performing the mission with 
the great support of the National Guard from multiple States. The 
response is here. The troops are getting the job done under the 
conditions that you see here today, and they're making America proud 
that we have that capability.
    We have capability. We're applying it--air, land, and sea--our 
Federal forces in support of the Governors of Louisiana and Mississippi, 
under the direction of the adjutant general. The system is working. 
We've got the capability, and we're looking forward to get the job done 
and get the job completed, until the Governors tell us otherwise.
    The President. The troop levels in Iraq will be decided by 
commanders on the ground. One, we're going to--our mission is to defeat 
the terrorists, is to win. Secondly, the strategy is, as Iraqis stand 
up, we will stand down. And so, to answer your question about the 
decisions made on the ground in Iraq, they will be made based upon the 
ability of the Iraqis to take the fight. And more and more Iraqi units 
are getting more and more qualified.
    There's still a lot of work to be done there. Obviously, we're going 
to make sure we have a troop presence to help this political process go 
forward. There's an election--the ratification of the constitution--
election will be coming up, and of course, there will be elections 
this--later on this year. And we will have the troop levels necessary to 
make sure those elections go forward.
    After all, the enemy wants to stop democracy. See, that's what they 
want to do. They want to kill enough people so that--in the hopes that 
democracy won't go forward. They tried that prior to--more than 8 
million Iraqis voting. They were unable to stop Iraqis from voting, 
because people want to be free. Deep in everybody's soul, regardless of 
your religion or where you live, is a desire to be free. And they can't 
stop it. And what we're going to do is help, and they can't stop 
democracy from moving. And so what we're going to do is help make sure 
those elections are accessible to the Iraqi people.

Federal Emergency Management Agency

    Q. Mr. President, there is a belief that we've been hearing for 2 
weeks now on the ground that FEMA let the people here on the ground 
down. And perhaps, in turn, if

[[Page 1384]]

you look at the evidence of what it's done to your popularity, FEMA let 
you down. Do you think that your management style of sort of relying on 
the advice that you got in this particular scenario let you down? And do 
you think that plays at all----
    The President. Look, there will be plenty of time to play the blame 
game. That's what you're trying to do.
    Q. No, I'm trying to----
    The President. You're trying to say somebody is at fault. Look--and 
I want to know. I want to know exactly what went on and how it went on. 
And we'll continually assess inside my administration. I sent Mike 
Chertoff down here to make an assessment of how best to do the job. He 
made a decision. I accepted his decision, but we're moving on. We're 
going to solve these problems. And there will be ample time for people 
to look back and see the facts.
    Now, as far as my own personal popularity goes, I don't make 
decisions based upon polls. I hope the American people appreciate that. 
You can't make difficult decisions if you have to take a poll. That's 
been my style ever since I've been the President. And of course, I rely 
upon good people. Of course, you got to as the President of the United 
States. You set the space; you set the strategy; you hold people to 
account. But yes, I'm relying upon good people. That's why Admiral Allen 
is here. He's good man. He can do the job. That's why General Honore is 
here. And so when I come into a briefing, I don't tell them what to do. 
They tell me the facts on the ground, and my question to them is, ``Do 
you have what you need?''

New Orleans Levees

    Q. Did they misinform you when you said that no one anticipated the 
breach of the levees?
    The President. No, what I was referring to is this: When that storm 
came by, a lot of people said we dodged a bullet. When that storm came 
through at first, people said, ``Whew.'' There was a sense of 
relaxation, and that's what I was referring to. And I, myself, thought 
we had dodged a bullet. You know why? Because I was listening to people, 
probably over the airways, say, ``The bullet has been dodged.'' And that 
was what I was referring to.
    Of course, there were plans in case the levee had been breached. 
There was a sense of relaxation in the moment, a critical moment. And 
thank you for giving me a chance to clarify that.

Anticipation of Katrina/Emergency Declarations

    Q. Mr. President, where were you when you realized the severity of 
the storm?
    The President. I was--I knew that a big storm was coming on Monday, 
so I spoke to the country on Monday [Sunday] * morning about it. I said, 
``There's a big storm coming.'' I had presigned emergency declarations 
in anticipation of a big storm coming----
    * White House correction.
    Q. Mr. President----
    The President. ----which is, by the way, extraordinary. Most 
emergencies the President signs after the storm has hit. It's a rare 
occasion for the President to anticipate the severity of a storm and 
sign the documentation prior to the storm hitting. So, in other words, 
we anticipated a serious storm coming. But as the man's question said, 
basically implied, wasn't there a moment where everybody said, ``Well, 
gosh, we dodged the bullet,'' and yet the bullet hadn't been dodged.
    Q. Mr. President----
    The President. Last question.

Retrospective Analysis/Reconstruction

    Q. This is 2 weeks in. You must have developed a clear image at this 
point of one critical thing that failed, one thing that went wrong in 
the first 5 days.
    The President. Oh, I think there will be plenty of time to analyze, 
particularly the structure of the relationship between government 
levels. But again, there's--what I think Congress needs to do--I know 
Congress needs to do--and we're doing this internally as well--is to 
take a sober look at the decisionmaking that went on.
    And what I want the people of this State and the State of 
Mississippi to understand is that we're moving forward with relief 
plans. And we're going to move forward with reconstruction plans, and 
we're going to do

[[Page 1385]]

so in a coordinated way. And it's very important for the folks of New 
Orleans to understand that, at least as far as I'm concerned, this great 
city has got ample talent and ample genius to set the strategy and set 
the vision. And our role at the Federal Government is--obviously, within 
the law--is to help them realize that vision. And that's what I wanted 
to assure the mayor.
    Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 9:29 a.m. at the intersection of North 
Claiborne and Cleveland Streets. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. 
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana; Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New 
Orleans, LA; Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, USA, commanding general, First 
United States Army; and Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, USCG, U.S. Coast Guard 
Chief of Staff. Lt. Gen. Honore referred to Maj. Gen. Bennett C. 
Landreneau, Adjutant General of Louisiana. A tape was not available for 
verification of the content of these remarks.