Michael Brown Quotes

"This is a community that's in dire need of jobs, which has a median income of less than $19,000 a year, ... If we don't use this power, cities will die."

"This was a catastrophic disaster, and in very disaster, there are mistakes, and it's not always smooth and pretty."

"We've got to come in as quickly as possible and do what we can to avert another disaster."

"So, if Isabel comes onboard, hits land with a lot of rain, which we expect her to do, there's a very good chance of flooding and that's going to cause a lot of problems."

"[With the evacuations firmly underway, recriminations abounded. Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), blamed the city. Mayor Ray Nagin] can order an evacuation, ... the resources to get the poor, elderly or the disabled out."

"I was still worried about it, because I knew what the potential was. But I think the president was speaking honestly at that point that he didn't really anticipate that they would be breached because of all this conflicting information."

"He liked to get into a lot of stuff. When I think about him, I think of his smile and his hair."

"I'm concerned about ... their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe."

"The total lack of communication. The inability to hear and have good intelligence on the ground about what was occurring there, ... We had to actually take teams out yesterday because of the dangerous situation they were in. That's very frustrating not only to me but those teams. Those medical teams want to help save lives and the thugs and the others that are causing the problem are actually making it more difficult. So we had to pull them out for a while. They want to go back in. They're going back in."

"Clearly the evidence is there that we have young people under the age of 21 routinely buying alcohol in our bars. Let's be realistic about it, and that's not good. When you get to be 21 then you can be an adult and you can drink responsibly and be an adult. But right now we don't need to have people under 21 in bars."

"in general, will show that this was a disaster of catastrophic proportions where communications were difficult at best, and communications were nonexistent at other times."

"We kept telling the team they were playing off emotion and we knew that would wear off."

"I find it a little disingenuous. For them to claim that we didn't have awareness of it is just baloney."

"Government does have the right to take properties under eminent domain with caution and responsibility. In this case the tenant had gone out of business and abandoned the property. It is not right for them to get money because they breached the lease."

"They're a good team -- there's no doubt about that -- but there were a few things that we could have done that would have changed some things,"

"This was a catastrophic disaster, and in every disaster, there are mistakes, and it's not always smooth and pretty. I'm at ease knowing I was doing everything I could."

"People are getting the help they need, ... This is an ongoing disaster. This disaster didn't just end when Katrina left."

"the total lack of communications, the inability to hear and have good intelligence on the ground about what was actually occurring there."

"I'm anxious to get back to D.C. to correct all the inaccuracies and lies,"

"Even as progress is being made, we know that victims are still out there and we are working tirelessly to bring them the help they need."