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
The very day that this emerged in the press, I was on a video conference with all the officials, including state and local officials. And nobody, none of the state and local officials or anybody else, was talking about a Convention Center,
Federal, state and local resources have been fully mobilized,
The way that emergency operations act under the law is the responsibility and the power, the authority, to order an evacuation rests with state and local officials. The federal government comes in and supports those officials.
last summer FEMA, who reports to you, and the LSU Hurricane Center, and local and state officials did a simulated Hurricane Pam in which the levees broke. ... Thousands drowned.
State and local authorities have the principal, first-line-of-response obligation, with respect to a disaster of this kind, ... Obviously, the law recognizes they can't do it themselves.
My own view is this, I've got to get my own house in order, ... I am not here to judge others. I did not have a problem with state and local officials.
I'm not going to judge others, ... I did not have a problem dealing with state and local officials.
We were prepared for one catastrophe. The second catastrophe, frankly, added a level of challenge that no one has seen before.
We were prepared for one catastrophe, ... The second catastrophe, frankly, added a level of challenge that no one has seen before.
We have to continue to use both low-tech and high-tech tools to assist our Border Patrol in patrolling this portion of terrain and protecting ourselves against people who want to sneak across.
We will not tolerate lawlessness, or violence, or interference with the evacuation,
We will work tirelessly to ensure that our fellow citizens have the sustained support and the necessary aid to reclaim their homes, their lives and their communities,
We certainly have to fill out the ranks of FEMA in terms of its senior level with experienced staff.
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.