Michael Chertoff
Michael Chertoff
Michael Chertoffis an American attorney who was the second United States Secretary of Homeland Security under Presidents George W. Bush andBarack Obama, and co-author of the USA PATRIOT Act. He previously served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as a federal prosecutor, and as Assistant U.S. Attorney General. He succeeded Tom Ridge as United States Secretary of Homeland Security on February 15, 2005...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublic Servant
Date of Birth28 November 1953
CountryUnited States of America
basically break challenges conducting context create dangerous days discovered effort existing few flood last massive might model national requires resources tremendous unusual using
I think we have discovered over the last few days that with all the tremendous effort using the existing resources and the traditional frameworks of the National Guard, the unusual set of challenges of conducting a massive evacuation in the context of a still dangerous flood requires us to basically break the traditional model and create a new model -- one for what you might call kind of an ultracatastrophe,
again awareness coming couple days eyes ground lack media opposed position reports terms uncertain unhappy waiting
I was very unhappy with the lack of situational awareness I had in the couple of days after Katrina. I never want to be in the position again where I don't have real eyes on the ground to tell me what is going on in no uncertain terms as opposed to waiting to get reports coming through the media or inconsistencies from the field.
ahead days people scene tough ugly witnessed
It is going to be about as ugly a scene as we've witnessed in this country, ... I really want to tell people that we have got some tough days ahead of us.
address bottom build criticism days hurricane line next season time waste
But I think the bottom line right now is to take the constructive criticism and use that to build toward, as I say, the hurricane season that is 100 days away. And we don't have a lot of time to waste before we start to address that next set of challenges.
days focusing hurricane next ourselves
And one of the things I want to say, Wolf, is we're 100 days from hurricane season, and we've got to start focusing on what we're going to do to make ourselves ready for the next hurricane.
area nation work
There are a lot of things that didn't work well. We are not where we need to be as a nation in the area of preparedness.
afford amount attention effort enormous focus guard might respect threats
While it is very important to focus an enormous amount of attention and effort on what is going on here, we can't afford to let our guard down in respect to other threats that might happen,
dry failed filling french historic huge lake last overnight water
There has been a huge development overnight ... the historic French Quarter, dry last night and it is now filling with water. This is water from nearby Lake Pontchartrain; the levees failed overnight.
aligned certainly closely closer department job learned lessons positive rita
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.
affect emergency family including learning plan prepare respond simple steps supply urge
We urge all Americans to take some simple steps to prepare for emergencies, including getting an emergency supply kit, making a family emergency plan and learning more about how to respond to emergencies that could affect your area,
borders cannot create cross deterrent effect high illegal land likelihood miles percent seal strong wish
We cannot hermetically seal 7,000 miles of land borders and keep out 100 percent of illegal crossers, ... But we can create such a high likelihood of interdiction that it will have a strong and unequivocal deterrent effect on those who wish to cross illegally.
afford cannot guard
We cannot afford to let our guard down,
certainly fema fill level ranks senior terms
We certainly have to fill out the ranks of FEMA in terms of its senior level with experienced staff.
caught found hiding maybe people remains scene ugly uncover whose
We're going to uncover people who died, maybe hiding in houses, got caught by the flood, people whose remains are going to be found in the streets, ... It is going to be about as ugly of a scene as I think you can imagine.