[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 37 (Monday, September 22, 2008)]
[Pages 1208-1209]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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

[[Page 1209]]

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 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. Rick Perry of Texas.