Well, I am not excusing the fact that planning and preparedness was not where it should be. We've known for 20 years about this hurricane, this possibility of this kind of hurricane. - Michael Chertoff

Well, I think first of all there was a failure to have real, clear information at our disposal. There was a real lack of situational awareness. We didn't have the capabilities on the ground to give us real-time, accurate assessments of the physical condition of the city. - Michael Chertoff

in Failure Quotes  view related quotes

Well, I mean, Congress did originally set the formula for the state grants, and they guaranteed every state a minimum formula. So that was a congressional decision. - Michael Chertoff

We've done it in intelligence sharing and certain elements of security. There were parts of the department, in fact, that worked very well in Katrina, like the Coast Guard and TSA. - Michael Chertoff

in Intelligence Quotes  view related quotes

We've certainly learned a lot of lessons from Katrina, from Rita. Rita was better than Katrina. We're doing a better job planning. We're closer - more closely aligned with the Department of Defense. These things would be positive things if we were to have another attack. - Michael Chertoff

We may have to force people to get together in terms of picking a particular type of technology and starting to build to that technology, as opposed to everybody exercising their right to buy their own system, you know, at will. - Michael Chertoff

The second thing we did was said, OK, we have now identified the risk, but what do you want to do with the money? Because it's not enough to have risk; you've got to have a meaningful use for the money we give you. - Michael Chertoff

The second is there are some communities that we thought originally would take mobile homes that have decided they do not want them. And we are not going to cram mobile homes down the throats of communities in Louisiana and the Gulf - and other parts of the Gulf Coast. - Michael Chertoff

The larger point is this: We've invested over half a billion dollars in New York since this department was stood up. We've given New York more money, by more than double, than any other city in the country. - Michael Chertoff

The Department of Defense took 40 years to get where it got. - Michael Chertoff

So, all during the '90s and, you know, for the first half of this decade, we had opportunities to get evacuation plans in place, better communications in place. - Michael Chertoff

in Opportunities Quotes  view related quotes

So that is why I said, if you look at the average, you would see the money New York got this year was in line with the average across the prior three years and substantially more, by a country mile, than the money given to any other city. - Michael Chertoff

in Age Quotes  view related quotes

Second, there are two problems with respect to mobile homes in particular. One is we obviously do not want to put them in a flood plain, because if there's another flood, you are going to lose the mobile home. - Michael Chertoff

Now, I am not suggesting we are going to wait 40 years or even four years, but I think we have to put in perspective the fact that we have come quite a distance. We have quite a distance to come - go, as well. - Michael Chertoff

Nobody leaves a hotel without getting a full measure of three months of rental assistance. So no one has been evicted - no one who's eligible has been evicted from a hotel without getting a significant amount of money to find - to pay for their rent. - Michael Chertoff