David Paulison Quotations

We're going to get people out of the shelters. We're going to move on and get them the help they need.

The process of recovery is difficult and we continue to provide rental assistance, apartment locater services and housing referrals to help evacuees take the next step in securing longer-term housing.

Peterson's experience in emergency management and as a fire chief will make him a highly effective Region VI director. His first hand knowledge and experience will be vital as FEMA works with its regional partners on all aspects of emergency management.

I don't think anyone in the Gulf Coast is out of harm's way.

We lost roofing tiles and our prized pink grapefruit tree.

Katrina is the largest flood disaster in our nation's history, and it requires us to take a new look at how we process flood insurance claims. Our mutual goal is to get families into the recovery process as quickly as possible.

It is also helping us be certain that our federal taxpayer dollars are supporting hurricane evacuees and not those who might take advantage of a program for disaster victims.

Please, please don't go back until the local emergency managers tell you it's safe to go back.

Part of the fire grants designated by Congress is set aside for health and safety for firefighters. We lose, over 50 percent of our firefighters' fatalities are heart attacks and strokes.

The Assistance to Firefighters grants represent a major effort by the federal government to ensure that the nation's firefighters continue to have the basic capability they require to do their jobs, improve safety and save lives.

We have caseworkers down there, and most people have already received rental assistance. I just gave approval to purchase 10,000 more travel trailers. We're working also with some of the apartment owners to rehab some of the apartments down there. We are going to make sure that people are taken care of. But the judge recognized that, and recognized that the right thing to do is to get them out of hotels and into some decent housing.

We are not making any assumptions in this storm. We are asking questions.

We've been doing surveillance of the refineries. So far what we see is minimal damage and we hope that holds, but we'll continue monitoring that to make sure that we can get those refineries back on line as quickly as possible.

There is no reason for anyone who sustained hurricane losses not to make that call and get whatever assistance they are eligible to receive.

What happened during Katrina, was that the Federal government, and even the state and locals, did not have a good situational awareness of what was actually happening on the ground, we're putting things in place to fix that.

We will now use competitive strategies everywhere possible placing priority on the use of local and small disadvantaged businesses as we move into the long-term recovery phase.

We are going to have situational awareness over this storm to make sure that we know what's going on and we can provide the equipment and the supplies that that particular community needs.

FEMA is going to be here. We are going to make sure that you get taken care of.

Again, these are safety issues that are costing firefighters' lives. And Congress rightfully so set aside these grants for these particular things.

Dee brings a wealth of federal acquisition experience to this position and she will be a valuable asset to FEMA and the department.

This is not going to be easy folks, it's not going to be fast. Recovery is a slow, methodical process.

It's difficult so far to get a total picture of the damage. But we do have a lot of people on the ground and people need to feel very secure down there that the state and FEMA are ready to respond with all those pre-positioned assets that we've been talking about.

These people in hotels and motels must take the next step to find a better housing solution.

If you did not evacuate, stay inside until everything is safe. Make sure the winds die down because we get more injuries after the storm than during the storm. We want you to just be careful.

I believe it is a civic responsibility for Americans to prepare themselves to take care of their families for the first 72 hours.

This has to be a partnership, because ultimately the communities are entitled to take responsibility and empower themselves.

The damage is not as serious as we had expected it to be. The evacuations worked.

The efforts at issue were performed independently of the State to fulfill the organizations' own public service mission. In addition, an accurate valuation for much of these services cannot be determined given that the State did not accept a donation for which it tracked time spent and other costs.