Text 1495, 531 rader
Skriven 2005-09-25 23:33:16 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0509252) for Sun, 2005 Sep 25
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Press Gaggle with Scott McClellan
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 25, 2005

Press Gaggle with Scott McClellan
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland



2:37 P.M. EDT

MR. McCLELLAN: All right, good afternoon. I just wanted to stop by and
provide you an additional update on the President's day. I know you saw
some of it, but I wanted to give you a little bit more, and then answer any
questions you might have on the day.

First of all, let me start with the first briefing this morning, in the
Joint Task Force Rita briefing at Randolph Air Force Base. You all were
there for the first part of it. After you all left the room, some of the
commanders there provided an additional update. They talked about the ice
and water and generators that they were deploying into the region, both
Eastern Texas -- Northeastern Texas and the Louisiana area. They said they
were continuing to focus, obviously, on saving lives being a priority, but
focused on debris removal and roofing issues and doing damage assessment.
They talked about how the -- one of the commanders talked about how they
were coordinating closely with Joint Task Force Katrina. Power was a top
priority, getting that power back on. And that's why the generators were
such an important priority. They talked about how they had these
generators, obviously, that were large enough to power major facilities and
power hospitals, and that that was a priority area. And they talked about
the distribution points that they had set up to support the relief efforts
and sustain life.

The President got an update on some of the initial damage assessment; a lot
of it is very preliminary at this point, because in some areas they may
have had to wait until they were able to get into there because of the
wind, and the strength of the wind, and so forth. But they talked about
some of the major facilities and talked about the Sabine River and the
flooding concern that they had there, but they had started a process about
four days ahead of the storm to release water from reservoirs in the area
to help alleviate that concern, and the report the President got was that
they weren't seeing any major flooding from the Sabine River area.

Q From the Sabine River?

MR. McCLELLAN: That they were not seeing any major flooding from the Sabine
River area. And one thing I'll come back to a little bit later in the
second briefing, one of the concerns yesterday was that the hurricane was
going to stall as it got into northeastern Texas, and it did not; it kept
moving. And I think that by the time we had the second briefing, it was
either north of Shreveport or already in Arkansas by that point.

One of the commanders talked about the National Response Plan, and how it's
been working pretty well in this instance. They have done a lot of
practicing and rehearsing of it. They talked -- the Coast Guard gave an
update on the oil and hazardous materials situation. They talked about New
Orleans, and the concern about the water there. I'll come back to that,
because he got more in the second briefing on that.

The Coast Guard gave an update on some of the parishes. The President was
asking about the parishes, and how the -- the Coast Guard commander there
gave an update that it was well coordinated, they had good marshaling
points in those parishes. But there were, obviously, some areas that
received significant damage. They talked about the good preparations and
organization that Texas had in place, as well, the Joint Task Force Rita,
that is, and how they worked very closely with them. He got an update on
the medical infrastructure.

He received an update on the Iwo Jima and the Tortuga, where they were
positioned and how they were positioning off the coast of the
Louisiana/Texas border area, to support General Clark and Honore. And they
had Marines on board that ship, as I mentioned yesterday, that were ready
to deploy as needed. I think they were still assessing the situation and
determining what might be needed, in terms of support from those Marines.

General Clark, toward the end, there was a little bit more discussion about
the role of the military in extraordinary circumstances, which the
President alluded to in his remarks this morning. General Clark talked
about how the federal government can bring in overwhelming assets, if
needed, and quickly get them in there. The President talked about how he
had been at Northern Command, and how -- the President talked about how the
Northern Command is an impressive operation.

And he touched on -- he touched a little bit more on what he talked about
to you all, about one of the things we need to consider is, is there a
trigger that comes into play in the event of a catastrophic event or an
extraordinary situation like a catastrophic event, where the Department of
Defense would need to come in and help, really, to stabilize the situation,
because the Department of Defense, as you heard the President say, is the
one organization that has the logistics and the communications and the
assets and resources needed to come in quickly and help stabilize the
situation. And if it's a catastrophic five-type hurricane like Hurricane
Katrina, one of those instances then, that's something that, as he said,
Congress needs to consider.

That's really, I think, pretty much that briefing. On the Joint Field
Office in Baton Rouge where we visited, Admiral Allen led that briefing, as
you're aware. The Governor joined in, in the briefing. Senator Vitter was
there, the Lieutenant Governor was there as well, of Louisiana. And the
Joint Field Office, as you saw, that's the federal government's operation
there. That is what Admiral Allen is overseeing, is the operational aspect
on the ground. Multiple federal agencies and organizations are there, but
anyhow, I mean, tens upon tens of federal agencies and organizations that
are working around the clock to help respond to Hurricane Rita, but also to
continue moving forward on Hurricane Katrina.

The briefing there started with an update from the Corps of Engineers. They
talked about the levees and the dewatering or unwatering process that was
underway. Initially they showed a comparison of the flooding in New Orleans
from Katrina and of course it is a much larger area, and then the flooding
because of Hurricane Rita, which was a smaller area; it was just pockets.
There's 9th Ward, obviously, is one area where there is significant
flooding, and then some other -- a couple other pockets, I think, where
there is flooding. And he talked about how the pumps were in place, and
they were really speeding up the dewatering process, and they felt good
about getting that done over the next several days, getting that water out
of there.

He received updates on the Industrial Canal and the 17th Street Canal, and
the work to -- the ongoing work on those -- protecting those levees. The
Corps also updated about how they're working very closely with local water
and wastewater boards on the response.

Then Admiral Allen gave an update on the amount of rainfall overall from
Rita. That's where he got an update that it was -- that Rita at that point
was either just north of Shreveport or already in Arkansas, and how it had
not stalled, but kept moving.

The President asked about the Iwo Jima, where the latest it was. Admiral
Allen talked about how General Honore was in Lake Charles, he was already
in Lake Charles, which is an area that received, what everybody believes is
significant damage. There's some preliminary assessments that they have of
the damage, but General Honore is on the ground doing additional
assessments so that we can determine what other resources and assets are
needed to help move forward on the relief and response efforts. I think
Admiral Allen mentioned that the 82nd Airborne was coming in to Lake
Charles, as well.

The Governor talked about how not very many people stayed behind for
Hurricane Rita, in the area. There was one small community where the Iwo
Jima had helped conduct some search and rescue operations, and 30 people
were pulled out of that area and now are safely on board the Iwo Jima. The
Governor mentioned that and praised those efforts.

They talked about the flooding. The flooding from Rita is -- I guess some
of it is probably left over from Katrina, but is all along the Louisiana
coastline. It goes much further east than what was expected, and you could
see that on the maps that Admiral Allen was presenting. And the President
asked about the damage assessment on Lake Charles, and Admiral Allen said
that it's -- they just have the initial, preliminary report at this point,
that General Honore was there to continue those assessments. They talked a
little bit more about the ships and the mission of the Iwo Jima.

He got an update on the oil spill situation. The Coast Guard gave an
update, talking about how pre-Rita, I guess it was from Katrina, that they
had some 8 million gallons of oil spills that they were working to clean
up, and I think they had already recovered somewhat less than 3 million of
those gallons, and they were continuing to assess the oil spills from this
one, but certainly not on the level of what we saw from Hurricane Katrina.

And then Admiral Allen gave an update on some of the Katrina recovery
efforts that are going on, and talked about the debris removal. That's one
area the President was asking a lot about, how is the debris removal -- are
we accelerating that process. We've got the simple form for the mayors and
county supervisors to sign, so that the federal government can go in and
help with removal on the private property. And Admiral Allen felt that that
was moving along well.

The President asked a lot of questions about how they're going about
getting rid of that debris. And that's an issue that they're looking at
right now. They've got some intermediate sites where they're placing some
of that debris. This is both Mississippi and Louisiana. And they're
determining how they -- landfills or incinerators, how they go about
getting rid of that debris. That's something they're working now.

The President asked more about the 9th Ward, and the searches that had gone
on there; where they were in terms of the progress of doing the searches of
all the homes in that area. Admiral Allen gave an update on the amount of
commodities that have been shipped in since Katrina, a very significant
amount.

They talked about how there have been $2 billion in individual assistance
payments that have been provided post-Katrina. And then the President and
the Governor talked about one of the messages he emphasized to you all,
which was people from the region need to listen to the Governor about when
it's safe to return to the region. And they talked a little bit about
gasoline supplies, getting the problem with the gasoline -- getting
gasoline back into that part of the region, for the needs of people in the
region.

And that's really -- and that was the end of his briefing. Then he went
around and thanked all the people there, and spoke to you all.

Q What's the next step on this idea of the DOD maybe taking over at certain
times if it's a big enough disaster?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, it's something we'll be discussing with congressional
leaders, and talking about. The President, as I said yesterday, spent a
good bit of time with Admiral Keating and Secretary Chertoff and others at
Northern Command, talking about some of these issues. And it's something he
believes very strongly that Congress needs to consider. And that's why I
emphasized what we're talking about here are really extraordinary
circumstances, brought about because of some catastrophic event, whether
it's a natural disaster or a terrorist attack or -- I should say, a natural
disaster or a terrorist attack of a certain magnitude and scope, or a
disease pandemic, like an avian flu outbreak, and you need to mobilize
assets and resources and logistics and communications very quickly to help
stabilize or contain the situation.

The Department of Defense is really the one organization that has the
ability and capability to be able to do that.

Q So would there be a DOD recommendation, or are you just going straight to
the lawmakers --

MR. McCLELLAN: I think right now it's something that is in the early
planning of discussing it, so that we can move forward and talk to about --
talk to members of Congress about it. It's something that the President
believes needs to be considered, as he said.

Q -- those two laws that we were talking about earlier, the posse comitatus
and the Insurrection?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you're talking about one area -- that's law
enforcement. The President's talking about considering a situation where
you need a clear line of authority in the event of a catastrophic event.
Right now in the -- I don't know if I want to say "lesser events," but in
some of the less significant or less catastrophic natural disasters or
terrorist attacks or disease situations, you have a structure in place to
work with state and local or first responders, the Department of Homeland
Security to respond, and they're prepared -- they have preparedness -- they
have the role in terms of preparation and preparedness for that, and then
responding to that initially.

But if you have a situation like a Hurricane Katrina, where the state and
local first responders are, to a large extent, victims themselves, and
somewhat overwhelmed, then what do you do in a situation like that, and
should there be some sort of a trigger that says, okay, the federal
government needs to marshal a lot of their resources quickly, get in there
and stabilize the situation. And it's the Department of Defense that has
the capability to do that -- the logistics, the communications, the assets
to be able to do it quickly for the initial time period you need to
stabilize the situation.

There are a number -- there are legal issues involved, and there are
reasons we have these laws in place. It's just something that needs to be
considered. It's one of the lessons learned, as the President has talked
about, from Hurricane Katrina.

Q Does it take -- would it take an act of Congress to do what the President
is thinking about? I think that's what you were saying.

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, that's why he said, Congress needs to consider this,
and that he wants to work with Congress to look at how we move forward on
it.

Q What would be the role of DHS if you were to do something like this, they
would be supporting DOD?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, this is the whole -- this goes to the issue of, when
you have a catastrophic event like we saw with Hurricane Katrina, there's
an issue of, what is the line of authority. And I think in the President's
thinking, he wants to make sure there's a very clear line of authority who
is going to oversee that response. Right now you have responsibility shared
among local, state and federal officials. To a large extent, the federal
government is in a role of supporting and assisting the state and local
first responders. That's why states and local communities have response
plans in place. And the federal government is there to do all we can to
assist with the search -- with savings lives and search and rescue
operations and sustaining life and providing or helping with the recovery.

Does that answer your question?

Q So, basically, the bottom line is, is that the Defense Secretary would be
the new line of command, and control all the operations?

MR. McCLELLAN: It's something we need to consider for the event of -- for
any event of a extraordinary circumstance brought about because of some
catastrophic event, whether it's a natural disaster or a terrorist attack
-- a large-scale natural disaster or a large-scale terrorist attack type
situation, or a large outbreak of disease.

Q Currently, under the National Response Plan, it's Chertoff, it's the
Homeland Security Secretary that's in charge. So you're -- the idea is to
shift it over to DOD.

MR. McCLELLAN: Again, it's in the event of an extraordinary circumstance
that we're talking about. It has to be some trigger there for a severe,
catastrophic-type event.

Q Is this being done because DHS is just unequipped -- they just don't have
what it takes to --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I don't think that's the way to look at it, because the
Department of Homeland Security has a very important role to play, in terms
of the preparedness and response to events of this nature. It's the
situation of a -- the best way to say it is an extraordinary circumstance,
a catastrophic event that -- of course we hope we never see another
Hurricane Katrina in our lifetime, or a situation like that. This was a
storm that covered 90,000 square miles. It was an unprecedented storm that
put state and local first responders, who were doing a great job, in a
difficult position.

One of the issues that we need to look at out of this is, what role does
the federal government play, and is there a point where you need an
organization to be able to come in and assume responsibility to help
stabilize the situation, and the organization, in the President's mind,
that has the capability to do that is the Department of Defense. You all
were there, you saw the Northern Command, and the logistics and the
communications capability and the assets that they can deploy quickly. The
military has those resources to be able to deploy them quickly and help
stabilize the situation.

Q Would the states have any say over whether the federal government would
just come in and effectively take over some sort of -- you know, the
disaster cleanup, or would --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I mean, some of these -- there are some existing
powers in place. A governor can certainly request certain things of the
federal government, and that's an issue to look at. These are all issues to
consider. That's what the President is talking about.

Q But, I mean, other than -- the ideas that he has, is he saying once it
reaches some trigger, than automatically the federal government takes over,
or does the state have -- is this a mandatory thing for the states?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, that's one of the things to consider, is there -- when
you have an automatic trigger that says, okay, now it's the federal
government that takes over, and the Department of Defense is the one with
the capability to be able to do that, help stabilize the situation. And
it's not -- it would be the --

Q At that point, the states wouldn't have any say in it.

MR. McCLELLAN: The Department of Defense would assume the responsibility
for the situation, and come in with an overwhelming amount of resources and
assets, to help stabilize the situation. And, certainly, we need support
from state and local authorities and other federal agencies, as well.

But, again, I just want to emphasize, it's an extraordinary circumstance
that you're talking about. We saw an extraordinary circumstance in
Hurricane Katrina, and we want to make -- we want to do what we can to
prevent something like what happened in terms of the response with Katrina
from ever happening again. That's part of the lessons learned. And this is
one very important lesson learned that needs to be addressed and needs to
be considered. And Congress is the one to consider these issues. And the
President -- that's why part of this trip -- and the President was here
first and foremost to get a firsthand look at the operations underway. But
it was also part of the fact-finding -- it was a fact-finding trip, as
well, so that he could look, or see first hand, how -- what capabilities
are there, and what response -- what kind of response might be needed in
the future.

Q Scott, isn't that, potentially, a very big commitment for the military at
a time when they have extensive obligations abroad, and some say they're
stretched pretty thin already?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, some may say that, but I think the military has said
otherwise. The Department of Defense has discounted that. They're able to
meet all their priorities. But, again, in terms of looking at this issue,
apart from your question, is that this is something that the President
believes needs to be considered, because we all saw what happened with
Hurricane Katrina and the response efforts. The President was not satisfied
about the results of that response.

And it was a local, state and federal response -- all levels of government
had responsibilities. And the first responders and federal officials that
were involved in search and rescue and the immediate response and relief
efforts were doing all they could, working around the clock to try to help
people. And there was a lot of -- certainly the Coast Guard search and
rescue teams, and the state and local first responders and authorities were
-- in many instances were doing a great job to save lives. But this storm
presented us with some unprecedented challenges and some enormous
challenges, and it raises the question about how do you address a
circumstance like this in the future. And that's why the President spent
some of his time on this trip focused on this issue, and he intends to move
forward with Congress to consider how we address this in the future.

Q -- any of the victims of the hurricane?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

Q Is he going to meet with any --

MR. McCLELLAN: We'll keep you posted on his schedule. But I suspect he will
be returning to the region soon.

Q How come he didn't on this trip?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, there are immediate response efforts still underway.
There's a lot of damage assessment that's still going on. Certainly in the
areas that were hit the hardest, they're still assessing -- doing a damage
assessment. There are still some search and rescue operations going on.
They're working to get commodities in there. The last thing we want to do
is get in the way of the ongoing, immediate response efforts. And that's
something we have never done before, and we had no intention of doing on
this initial trip to the region. But I expect the President will be
returning to the region soon.

Q Tomorrow?

MR. McCLELLAN: We'll be updating the schedule later tonight. He will be
going over to -- one event that will be on the schedule -- he's going to be
going over to the Department of Energy to participate in a -- chair a
briefing on some of the energy issues related to these two hurricanes. And
I expect he'll talk to you all after that briefing.

Q Scott, two quick questions. Any other lessons learned?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think one of the lessons learned that the President
has already talked about, was discussed in some of these briefings he's
received, was that it's important to start the evacuation process early.

You saw in Texas a large amount of people that were -- well over 2 million
people, is what Texas and federal officials have updated us on while we
were in Austin. And that's an unprecedented number of people who are trying
to move, and certainly the -- I think everybody will look at things that
worked well there, and things that can work better in the future, and take
steps to improve that. But they started that process early. Louisiana was
starting it early. And that's one of the lessons learned.

And you heard another lesson learned, that the Air Force general talked
about, that they're already -- one of the lessons they've already learned
-- that was when he was talking about the air operations for search and
rescues. You have a situation where someone calls in the search and rescue
operation to -- they need to carry out this one operation, and you maybe
had five helicopters being deployed to that one rescue, because you had so
many resources surging into the area, air assets, and they were on what the
military called visual flight response, meaning that you had so many air
assets in the region. And so that's what that Air Force General was talking
about, is we need to look at a national plan for that aspect of the
operation, to make it's better coordinated, and that you're working in the
most effective way to save lives.

Q -- the evacuation, it seems like a lot more people are heading back into
Houston, toward Galveston, than according to the plans that the governors
and mayors --

MR. McCLELLAN: You mean ahead of when they should have?

Q Right. How does the President feel? It seems like a lot of people are
ignoring the advice of the President of the United States, of the Governors
of Louisiana and --

MR. McCLELLAN: That's -- it is a concern. It was a concern of both the
Governor of Texas and the Governor of Louisiana. And that's why you heard
the President reiterate what they were saying, is that we want to make sure
people aren't returning too soon; wait until you hear from your state and
local authorities to return.

You had, in Texas, I know one of the things they talked about was that
there were still assets they had prepositioned they were trying to get into
the region, and you had some issues with traffic that -- because people
were wanting to get back prematurely. And that's why the President was
reinforcing the messages of the two Governors, that -- don't return yet;
listen to -- wait until we say it's safe to return. It's an area that the
media has, and can help with, too, to help us get that message out to
people: it's too early to return, listen to your Governors.

Q One of the problems getting out of Houston, for example, with all the
long lines, and that was with notice. Does that mean that we're really not
--

MR. McCLELLAN: That was what?

Q With notice, with notice that they had to get out.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, like I said, obviously, they -- this was an
unprecedented number of people that were being evacuated. And they got a
large number of people out of -- I would think the vast majority, if not
all -- almost all of those that wanted to -- intended to evacuate were
evacuated. And certainly that -- I think that that was --

Q A radiological or biological attack, there would be no notice. Does that
mean that we really can't evacuate --

MR. McCLELLAN: And, obviously, from situations like this, you learn lessons
and you look at ways to improve in the future. And everybody understands
the importance of assessing how things worked and taking steps to improve
in the future.

Q Will the President push for --

MR. McCLELLAN: I'll just point out that evacuations are under the
responsibility of state and local authorities, but the federal government
is there to assist, and we have assisted in a lot of ways, helping -- I
mean, one of -- another lesson learned within the aspect of the evacuation
is the special needs population -- the nursing homes, the hospitals, the
people with disabilities, making sure that you're focused on that priority
area and getting those people out safely, or getting them to a safe place.

And that's something that I pointed out the example of the Beaumont
hospital on Friday, when they were able to -- the federal government
assisted, but the private sector did, too, and state authorities, go in and
evacuate some 3,000 people. There were other instances like that. There was
an instance, I think, in a Louisiana hospital, as well -- a smaller number,
but they were able to evacuate people.

Q Scott, you mentioned the gasoline shortages. Are you talking about the
retail sort of shortages at the gas --

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm talking about the areas that were hit hard, and as
people start to return, what we're doing to address that problem of
gasoline there in that area. Now tomorrow he'll receive an additional
update. But I think Secretary Bodman spoke last week, and talked about the
energy sector, and where things stood in the region, and nationally. And
one of the areas he talked about was concern about natural gas shortages
and how we're working to address that issue.

In terms of -- I think some of the preliminary assessments of refineries
and offshore oil rigs from Hurricane Rita was that the -- the preliminary
assessments, and I would encourage you to check with the proper
authorities, but were that the refineries were okay, that there wasn't
significant damage, and that the oil rigs from Rita -- they're still
assessing that, but certainly was not as significant as the damage from
Katrina.

All right, thank you all.

END 3:08 P.M. EDT

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