Quotations

«meeting the needs as they are communicated to us.»

«I think everyone in the country needs to take a big, collective, deep breath and recognize that there are a lot of people in this state, in Mississippi and Alabama who are living under conditions that, quite frankly, I doubt any reporter in this room is living under -- no food, no water, it's hot, it's sticky, their homes have been destroyed, they don't know where they're going to go next.»

«the single largest mobilization of emergency response and recovery resources in history.»

«[He said FEMA mistakenly paid out a handful of undeserving claims and made some other bureaucratic errors. But he said his agency was trying to engage in a difficult balancing act -- practicing judicious oversight while sending payments to needy hurricane victims as fast as possible.] We must never . . . sacrifice that urgency in the pursuit of elusive administrative perfection, ... Our mission to get help quickly to those who desperately need it must take priority, yet be carefully balanced with our obligation to be stewards of taxpayer dollars. . . . FEMA was never stampeded into making any decisions.»

«This is the first object to be confirmed to be larger than Pluto in the outer solar system.»

«[Speaking to] Larry King Live ... That Category 4 hurricane caused the same kind of damage that we anticipated. So we planned for it two years ago. Last year, we exercised it. And unfortunately this year, we're implementing it.»

«I understand that there are pockets where people have not gotten the basics, and we're working with the Coast Guard to get those,»

«FEMA response and recovery operations are a top priority of the department and as we know, one of yours,»

«Thank you for your consideration in helping us meet our responsibilities in this near catastrophic event.»

«[Last week, Bush, while saying that the initial federal response to the hurricane was] not acceptable, ... Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job.»