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Release Date: September 11, 2008
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact 202-282-8010
Washington, D.C.
SECRETARY CHERTOFF: Good afternoon. I'm joined here by the administrator of FEMA, David Paulison, Rear Admiral Brian Salerno, Assistant Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Rear Admiral Craig Vanderwagen, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, Kevin Kolevar from the Department of Energy, and Armand Maselli, vice president of Red Cross.
As you know, the Gulf Coast, in particular Texas, is facing the onslaught of a very large and dangerous storm, Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Ike is projected to begin to impact the central part of Texas, the coast, tomorrow with tropical storm winds, and they will increase until overnight Friday night into Saturday morning we have what looks to be a Category 3 hurricane.
But I want to emphasize that the scope of this storm is not merely a matter of the intensity and the category of the wind. It is a massive storm. It's impacting, in terms of its scope, approximately 40 percent of the Gulf, and you're beginning to see some of the evidence of the storm surge as far away as Mississippi and Louisiana as well as throughout Texas.
This storm is also going to impact Texas in a particularly dangerous and vulnerable area, which is somewhat south of Galveston Bay, again somewhat south of Houston, with a major impact in the bay itself. Because of the intensity and the size of the storm, there will be a very powerful storm surge, which is going to be one of the most threatening elements of this storm, particularly to those people in the area of Galveston and the surrounding counties.
For this reason, evacuation, where it has been ordered by local officials, is very important. It's essential to make sure that we move people who are in harm's way in low-lying areas out of harm so that they don't get caught up in flooding or serious wind damage. I urge the people of the communities in Texas, as well as some communities in Louisiana, to heed the direction of their local officials and to make sure that they are evacuating in a timely fashion, recognizing that once those tropical storm winds hit, evacuation is going to start to become very impractical.
I can tell you that emergency responders and commodities at the local, state, and federal level are in place and ready to go in order to provide aid and assistance. Shelters are open, and there is still time for people to identify the shelter they're going to if they need to go to a shelter and make their way there.
The most important message I can send is: Do not take this storm lightly. Do not look back at Gustav and say, well, that turned out to be not as bad as some people feared; therefore, I'm going to gamble with this storm. This is not a storm to gamble with. It is large. It is powerful. It carries a lot of water with it. And you're much better served being safe rather than sorry.
I want to thank everyone for their efforts and serious attention. We completed just about half an hour ago a video teleconference with the President of the United States, with federal officials from the region, state officials from the region, obviously people from FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, designed to make sure that we were as coordinated as possible going into this storm.
I recognize that local officials and state officials and responders have been working very hard, very long hours as this storm has approached, and that the storm has made it very complicated because it has moved somewhat unpredictably, particularly taking kind of a northward hook in the last 24 hours.
Nevertheless, we will deal with the challenge that we face. Once people evacuate and the storm passes, we are prepared to move very rapidly to make sure that anybody who is caught in dire circumstances can be rescued. To give you some picture of what it is we're planning, we have taken overhead imagery using, for example, a Customs and Border Protection drone or unmanned aerial system so that we can have an accurate picture before the storm, and then once the storm leaves, after the storm of exactly what the damage is. That will help us respond effectively.
The Coast Guard, the United States Department of Defense, the National Guard, Texas state assets, and other state assets have been brought together for the purpose of search and rescue when the storm leaves. We've got literally dozens and dozens of airframes, high water vehicles. Other kinds of rescue craft will be available. We would prefer to rescue as few people as possible, but we do stand ready if necessary to perform those rescues.
And then of course, once the storm passes and the immediate crisis is no longer with us, we'll be there with the people of the state of Texas and the affected communities for purposes of longer-term recovery.
With that, I want to introduce the Administrator.
ADMINISTRATOR PAULISON: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. The Secretary just returned from New York, commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 and the attack on this country. And today, across this country, we honored the fallen and we pray for their loved ones. As a nation, we answered the challenge that day, and we're going to continue to answer the challenges. I heard Jack Colley say that this hurricane is Mother Nature's weapon of mass destruction.
But just as we did with Dolly and Edouard and Fay and Gustav and Hanna, we are going to respond to this storm like we should. Individuals evacuated as necessary in those previous storms, and like the Secretary said, we urge everyone to heed those evacuation orders. This is a very dangerous storm.
The process is working. We had Texas on the videoconference today. It's the partnership we're developing, just like we did with Gustav. Our individuals, communities, local, state, and federal partners are all working together to respond to the storm because we know that everyone has a part of the responsibility, including individuals, and part of that responsibility is to evacuate when asked to do so.
It's critical, very critical, that the residents and businesses listen to their state and local officials. They have to closely follow the news. This storm is coming very quickly. By this time tomorrow, we'll have tropical force winds. By early Saturday morning, we'll have hurricane force winds all along the entire coast of Texas. So people need to pay attention.
Texas has deployed the Texas Task Force Ike, and that consists of more than a thousand state, local, and federal first responders and urban search and rescue people, including people from the Department of Defense. And this will be the team the Secretary talked about, as not only doing search and rescue now, but also will do so immediately after the storm. They will embed themselves in safe harbor and will be ready to respond and be in theater very, very quickly.
We've also started moving in a lot of supplies. We've moved in almost 2 million liters of water, and 3.1 million more liters are arriving today and tomorrow. We have over 2 million meals in theater, and another 2-1/2 million meals will be moving in today and tomorrow. We have 270,000 cots ready.
We have over 100 generators, and 87 more generators arriving very shortly. We're moving large generators that run hospitals and water plants into the theater to make sure that after the storm goes through -- we know that the power is going to be out -- we can repower some of those issues.
We have a lot of teams on site to give us very a clear situational awareness of what's happening, and they are currently already on the ground and doing that.
FEMA and the federal partners have prepositioned more than 40 separate emergency response units in 14 different locations around Texas, and we're going to continue to work with Texas, assisting them with evacuations and assisting them with response after the storm leaves.
So what I'd like to do now is turn it over to some of our other partners. And I believe the next one is going to be Rear Admiral Brian Salerno, commander of the marine safety of the U.S. Coast Guard. Commander?
REAR ADMIRAL SALERNO: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Good afternoon. As America's maritime guardian, the Coast Guard is taking action to protect citizens, critical maritime infrastructure, and our own personnel and assets in the projected path of Hurricane Ike. We're focused on helping the public and the maritime industry prepare for and evade this life-threatening storm.
Hurricane Ike is a dangerous storm. I echo the comments that you heard from the Secretary of the need for people who are in the protected impact zone to heed evacuation orders. While the Coast Guard stands ready to save lives and protect property, it is unlikely that we can reach anyone in the height of a massive hurricane. The best lifesaving measure that someone living in the impact zone can take is to heed the evacuation order if one is issued.
As you know, Texas ports are vital to the national economy. We are working closely with our port partners to minimize the potential damage to the maritime transportation system and to protect the environment. This includes closing threatened ports, requiring large vessels to put to sea, and requiring any vessels that are not able to put to sea and that must remain in port to follow very strict heavy weather mooring plans.
We have dispatched a number of teams to staging areas in Texas, including four disaster assistance response teams, a transportable multi-agency communications unit, and two dozen command and control specialists to support the joint field office in Austin.
The Coast Guard Cutter Northland has been designated to serve as an offshore command and control platform for post-hurricane response, and there are a total of 21 Coast Guard cutters currently evading the storm and prepositioning themselves to follow in behind the storm and provide lifesaving and other support as needed.
On that last point, the use of Coast Guard assets for immediate post-storm relief was something we saw as recently as last week. When Hurricanes Ike and Hanna devastated Haiti, the Coast Guard Cutter Legare and Coast Guard aircraft quickly responded and provided more than 35 tons of humanitarian supplies to the residents of Gonaïves, who were cut off from the rest of the country by flooding.
In addition, we have been authorized to activate 250 reservists for response operations, if necessary. These additional people will supplement the capabilities of our locally-based forces and our predeployed special teams.
And finally, as the Secretary mentioned, we are conducting pre-storm flights to protect mariners at sea, advise them to seek safe waters, and also to ensure the safety of offshore oil and gas production facilities.
Thank you very much, and I look forward to your questions.
SECRETARY CHERTOFF: Admiral Vanderwagen?
REAR ADMIRAL VANDERWAGEN: Thank you, sir. Good to be here with you.
Good afternoon. I'm Dr. Craig Vanderwagen. I am the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and response at Health and Human Services.
Today, in anticipation of this storm, Secretary Leavitt of our department has activated over 1,600 individuals to provide assistance to the states of Texas and Louisiana in the face of Ike. Those people are providing now support to the state as they evacuate their patients. The state is using all its assets, and in addition to that we are providing over 300 additional ambulances, airlift, both rotary wing and fixed wing, to support that effort. Most of the hospitals have been considered for evacuation, and those that are in the low-lying zones have evacuated, and many are considering alternatives to sheltering in place, even today.
With the changing trajectory of the storm, it's very difficult for Texas and the health department there to move their patients without unnecessary risk. But they've done an excellent job of husbanding their resources and targeting those people in greatest need. And that would include elders, those with disabilities, and other special medical needs.
We have over 1,000 beds of additional care available, established, and staffed in Texas to provide a place of shelter for those individuals who need it and need medical assistance. We, too, stand ready to respond immediately after the storm, and will work with the FEMA advance teams as they go in to assess the damage and provide medical support where it is called for.
Again, Texas has done a marvelous job. They have many assets. They are using them all to good effect. And our ability to support them is just a real honor.
For those of you that are considering and should consider evacuation, I would remind you to remember to take your medications with you. Take with you a list of your medical problems, if you can codify that. And be safe.
Thank you very much.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KOLEVAR: Good afternoon. I'm Kevin Kolevar, assistant secretary with the U.S. Department of Energy.
In advance of the storm, the department is working with its industry partners to get a good sense of what is happening in the region. As you would expect, offshore production has been heavily affected. Ninety-five percent of crude production is offline. About three-fourths of natural gas production is offline.
Turning to refineries, there are 20 refineries in the Lake Charles to Corpus Christi area. Most of those are shut down now. I expect that by the end of the day, almost all will be either shut down or reduced runs.
We expect that this will likely have fuel impacts. There is likely to be constrained supply while we wait for the refineries in the lower Louisiana area to come back on line up to full production and to begin putting fuel back into the system. We'll know more, of course, Saturday and Sunday once we start getting firm damage assessments.
Finally, the department continues to stand ready to release refined -- excuse me -- crude stocks from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when called upon.
Thank you.
MR. MASELLI: Good afternoon. My name is Armand Maselli, and I'm with the Red Cross, American Red Cross disaster services.
First, let me say today the Red Cross joins the nation in remembering those that died on September 11, 2001 in Washington, in New York, and in Pennsylvania. Today, as on that day, the Red Cross stands with the country.
As you heard from Director Paulison, we are now very focused on preparing for Ike's landfall. The Red Cross has been working with its federal, state, and local government partners for the past several days to get ready for this.
As with previous storms, our focus is on sheltering and receiving people as they are evacuated from the areas of risk. We also continue to work with community organizations, the non-government agencies that are very active in disaster response, such as the NAACP, the National Baptist Convention, the Boat People SOS, Catholic Charities, and HOPE Worldwide.
We join FEMA and the state of Texas in urging citizens to listen to local authorities, to heed evacuation orders. We've learned again from Gustav that it takes all of us -- government, the Red Cross, private sector partners, and other agencies, and particularly informed citizens -- to ensure safe evacuations. Citizens are urged to stay informed, to have an evacuation plan, and to assemble enough supplies to weather the storm.
For this storm, our disaster leadership team is in place in Texas. In addition to 1,500 local disaster paid and volunteer staff, we've sent in another 1,281 Red Cross disaster workers. And we'll be working with the state and local officials again, as I mentioned, on sheltering.
We are prepared, in addition to sheltering, to provide meals when the all-clear is given. As the storm moves through the area, we'll be ready with a variety of services, as I mentioned: health and mental health services, but also a very important service to help people stay in touch with one another. People are going to evacuate. We are a very mobile nation. We have friends and relatives who live throughout the United States. We are encouraging folks that before they -- or as they evacuate, to access the Red Cross web page, www.redcross.org, and on there they'll have a "Safe and Well" message they could leave for their loved ones to let them know where they're going.
All of this is happening while we continue to respond to Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana and other small disasters across the country. Last night we had 17 shelters in Louisiana with just over a thousand residents.
So again, we do urge folks to pay attention to information released to the local authorities and I’d be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you.
SPEAKER: We’ll take questions from news media here in the room first. I ask when called upon that you simply identify your name and your news organization. Sir?
MR. COSNER: Mike Cosner from NBC. Secretary Chertoff, can you put this scale of what the people in Texas and you’re all facing in terms of how powerful -- the combination of power of this storm mixed with an urban area, businesses, airports, oil refineries, with a large population, can you put that scale and all this into perspective?
SECRETARY CHERTOFF: Let me begin by saying that, of course, we’re describing this storm as it is right now on Thursday. It is still possible that this storm may develop in an unpredictable fashion tomorrow. It could intensify beyond what we predict or it could in fact break apart in some way because it is a very large storm.
Nevertheless, taking what we know now, we’re looking at a Category 3 storm but one which is exceptionally large. I believe it’s larger in geographic scope in wind field than Katrina was. Because of that and because of the particular angle of attack, it’s going to have a storm surge that has been described to me as perhaps one that would normally go with a storm of even greater intensity than a Category 3. So we’re dealing with a very powerful push of water that in some areas could lead to a surge of 18 or 20 feet or even a little bit more.
The other striking dimension of this storm is the location of where the center of the storm is predicted to fall. One of the nightmare scenarios in the world of hurricane watching is a hurricane hitting up the Houston ship channel going through Galveston Bay and we have one that’s coming pretty close to what that nightmare is. It’s going to be somewhat south of that. That means you’re going to get a very powerful push of water into the Bay and potentially up into the channel at a Category 3 level.
What this means is not only, of course, a substantial risk of flooding, one that could potentially impact an area inhabited by hundreds of thousands of people, but we’re talking about real impact not only on the refineries in question but the chemical industry and a lot of the energy and chemical resources that we depend upon in this country.
So once we attend, first and foremost obviously, to human safety and human security which is the Number 1 priority, we’re going to want to make sure we’re working very closely with private sector and with the state and local government to address the resource impact as quickly as possible.
MR. COSNER: Can I just follow up real quick? You touched on this earlier. How concerned are you about this “hurricane fatigue,” sort of false sense of security when, you know, the prediction of something doesn’t quite pan out, it’s not as serious as it was the last few weeks?
SECRETARY CHERTOFF: Well, unless you’re fatigued with living, I suggest that you ought to take very seriously a storm of this size and scale.
Now, you know, if it turns out, as with Gustav, that the storm breaks in a way that’s a little bit better, that’s a good thing. It doesn’t mean that that’s anything we can count on for the future and for every storm that has broken better than predicted, there’s a storm that broke worse than predicted.
If you look at the photographs that we’ve seen from Galveston Island, for example, right now which I’ve seen on television showing the water already rising on some of the houses there and we’re talking about tropical storm winds being hours away, it’s not hard to imagine what that’s going to be like when the full measure of the surge hits.
So I guess my bottom line is this is not a game of chicken with Mother Nature. Mother Nature will win that game. This is a time to heed the instructions of your local officials and do what they tell you to do.
SPEAKER: Operator, do we have any questions on the telephone, please?
OPERATOR: Yes, sir. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press Star, then 1 on a touch tone phone. If you decide you want to withdraw your question, please press Star, 2, to remove yourself from the list.
Our first question is from Terrell Hughes from Dow Jones Newswire. You may go ahead, sir.
MR. HUGHES: This message is for DOE Kevin. When you say that -- I’m sorry. Hang on a second. You say the fuel supply is going to be interrupted. What type of fuel are you talking about, and are you saying regionally or throughout the entire country, and what’s the timeline for when supplies could be back online after -- from the time -- the projected time that the storm leaves?
MR. KOLEVAR: I’m talking about refined product, so gasoline, diesel. I want to stress that we think that this is something that is possible, given the size and intensity of the storm as the Secretary described, but should we see that, we expect that will not be nationwide, that we would see that within the region, the Gulf of Mexico region, and to an extent up the Eastern Seaboard to the MidAtlantic, because this part of the country relies very heavily on the Gulf of Mexico for our fuel supplies, and so to the extent that the injects down in the Gulf of Mexico that are piped up to this part of the country are interrupted, we would expect to see that along the length of the pipeline.
SPEAKER: Operator, next question, please.
OPERATOR: Yes, our next question comes from Brian Sullivan, Bloomberg News. You may go ahead, sir.
MR. SULLIVAN: I’m curious how many folks are being evacuated now. Do you have any idea?
SPEAKER: There is about three and a half million people that are in that area that have the potential to be evacuated. Right now, we do not have a handle on how many are evacuating. We’ve been watching the flow of the roads and there’s consistently heavier and heavier traffic as we go through the days as we get closer to the storm making landfall. So right now, we really don’t know how many people are evacuating. We should hopefully have that tonight from the State of Texas to give us some predictions on that.
SPEAKER: Next question, Operator.
OPERATOR: Yes, Eileen Sullivan from AP. You may go ahead, please.
MS. SULLIVAN: Hi, I have two questions. One. Is FEMA reimbursing evacuees who drive themselves out for evacuations? And secondly, I understand Texas is predicting there will be 30,000 people in need of rescue. Is that because you expect 30,000 people not to heed evacuation orders?
ADMINISTRATOR PAULISON: We do not reimburse people for self-evacuating. That’s something we would expect you to do to take care of yourself and your family. So we’re not doing that.
And the second question was? Eileen, what was the second question?
MS. SULLIVAN: It was 30,000 in need of rescue in Texas. That’s what the state’s projecting. Do you expect that that’s because 30,000 won’t evacuate?
ADMINISTRATOR PAULISON: Texas is taking a very conservative view of what they think they may have to have, given a storm of this size. We have Texas Task Force 1 is the unified command place that runs this, but that involves nine FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Teams. That involves teams from NorthCom, teams from Coast Guard, teams from the National Guard, all participating and operating under one command post. So they have enough capacity to rescue about 30,000 people and I don’t think they’re predicting how many people aren’t going to evacuate. I think what they’re just saying is we want to make sure we’re ready in case something does happen that we’re not aware of.
MS. SULLIVAN: Okay. Thanks.
SPEAKER: Operator, the next question.
OPERATOR: The next question is from Tom Doggett from Reuters. You may go ahead, please.
MR. DOGGETT: Thank you. Hi. This is for DOE. There were some pending requests for SPR oil loans resulting from problems with Gustav. Have you acted on those two requests for those two oil companies, and have you gotten anything yet, indication that some refiners might need some help after Ike?
MR. KOLEVAR: The department in the wake of Gustav received two requests. The first was from Citgo. The Secretary determined we would supply that. However, we ended up not having to. The Coast Guard opened up the Calcasieu Channel and supplies were able to come in.
There was an additional one, I don’t remember the name of the company, so I won’t name a company, for a million barrels and the department has met that. The department has received a couple of other requests. I was notified just in the last hour of two more requests coming in.
To the extent that our due diligence demonstrates that in fact these companies need access to this crude, the department will make a positive decision on that.
SPEAKER: Operator, next question, please.
OPERATOR: Our next question is from Brian Sullivan, Bloomberg News. You may go ahead, sir.
MR. SULLIVAN: Hi. I have a question about the oil and the gasoline and diesel stocks you said were being impacted along the Gulf and up the Eastern Seaboard.
What kind of impact would that be, and do you have any idea what that might do to prices? And also a second question. The storm you said might have an impact on oil and chemical production. What kind of impact do you think it would have there?
MR. KOLEVAR: Well, I will not speak to prices. The point I want to make is that given the really one-two hit that the energy sector in the Gulf is taking, given the extent to which that region of the country and the Midwest and the East are dependent on resources from that region, that if we see constrained fuel supplies as a result of two very powerful storms, then that will impact -- excuse me -- the piping operations that move the fuels to other parts of the country.
It is too early to predict how long term that would be. We certainly have to wait to see the extent of damage, if any, to oil facilities in the region, but given the impacts that we saw in Louisiana, given the size and intensity of the storm that we are seeing now bearing down on the Galveston-Houston area, we think this is a possibility and it’s something that people should be cognizant of.
In terms of the chemical sector and the oil sector, it really comes down to the refining, whether refining petroleum or refining chemicals for other operations, the impact on those. We’re going to have to wait to see the extent to which the tight geographically-located refining operations are affected both by the wind and by the storm surge from the storm.
SPEAKER: Operator, we have time for one last question from the phone line before we finish with one last question in the room.
OPERATOR: Okay. We have our final question from Judy Hanstead from Christian Emergency Network. You may go ahead, please.
MS. HANSTEAD: Thank you. Considering all the recent storm relief efforts still in process, has there been a healthy increase in donations to both government and non-governmental and faith-based relief groups so that they can function in the future as well as I know there’s been a serious effort made on behalf of many groups asking for supplies and specifically cash donations? Do you have a feel for if people are responding?
MR. MASELLI: Yes. At this point, the level of support has not matched the scope of the disasters. We believe in some cases, particularly Gustav, that folks are just so relieved that the impact was not as profound as, say, a Katrina, that sort of then assumed that the impact was somehow significantly less. So that the result, I think, across the board with the Red Cross and I believe a number of the other organizations have indicated that donations have not been forthcoming.
SPEAKER: Final question?
SPEAKER: The Secretary and the director have both been down in Louisiana in the last few weeks. You’ve watched evacuation procedures there. Lessons learned from Katrina. What encouraged you then about what you saw and what might carry over to this weekend?
SECRETARY CHERTOFF: Well, speaking for myself and then I’ll have -- the Administrator may want to add something, I think the key to the successful evacuation in Louisiana was the preparation and planning which had gone on for the prior couple of years which involved the very detailed analysis of what the requirements were and how to meet those.
In particular, what that allowed us to do was to backstop Louisiana with respect to the evacuation of people with serious medical problems. We were able to build an air bridge on short notice. We were able to supplement in terms of ambulances and also in terms of medical support and things of that sort.
Texas. We’ve also worked with Texas as Texas has put together its plans. They’ve had a more recent experience, frankly, with having to do evacuations in Dolly and, of course, Dean last year and so they are benefiting, if you will, from a lot of practice, but here again, we’re able to bring in, with the support of DOE, aircraft for the purpose of doing medical evacuations in the Beaumont area and in other areas as well as to be able to support Texas with communications equipment, search and rescue equipment.
All of this is proof and the product of a good deal of work that went into building a comprehensive set of plans, not just with the Department of Homeland Security, including Customs and Border Protection, Coast Guard and FEMA, but HHS, DoD, Department of Justice and other agencies, and that’s -- I think that’s something that’s going to carry over wherever the disaster occurs.
SPEAKER: That completes our briefing and as the speakers exit, staff members will remain behind to offer a few instructions.
So thank you, Mr. Secretary and speakers.
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This page was last reviewed/modified on September 11, 2008.