Henry Bonilla Quotes

As everyone in Louisiana knows, there was often no communication or coordination between the state and federal government in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The Federal Government did not know about the people at the New Orleans Convention center until today.

The president's very right about one thing: When you have a disaster of that scale, whether it be natural or a terrorist attack, there's only one part of our entire government, state or local, that is equipped to handle it, and that's the U.S. military.

How can you have a partnership when one of the partners doesn’t show up for 5 days…. The President said nothing while Americans watched people drown in New Orleans.

Government at every level failed the Katrina victims.

After a disaster, processing claims quickly trumps everything.

Hurricane [Katrina] hit the Gulf Coast and destroyed much of the Gulf Coast - that was an act of God ... Now what happened to New Orleans, that was a complete failure of the federal government. Complete negligence by the feds.

It is proper that the federal government help alleviate short-term disruptions and price spikes such as those brought about by Hurricane Katrina.

There could have been more planning in New Orleans, but you look at all the devastation that happened there - have we gotten to 3,000 deaths yet? For that magnitude of a disaster, that's not all that bad.

Thousands of people may have been killed by hurricane Katrina and many more could die in its aftermath because of the President's refusal to heed the calls of governors for help in repairing the infrastructure in their states.

The federal government was responsible for building the levees, engineering the levees, and consequentially, the federal government is responsible for repairing the damage that has been done, which has not been completed yet.

We're facing a natural disaster in the middle of an economic disaster. The federal government has to balance its budget the way our families do.

Americans rightly asked, if this is the way our government responds to a natural disaster it knew about days in advance, how would it respond to a surprise terrorist attack? How would it respond to an earthquake?

I'll just tell you, I'm not a big FEMA fan.

Homeowners and business owners across the country agreed to pay premiums, communities agreed to adopt building codes to mitigate flood dangers, and the Federal Government agreed to provide insurance coverage to policyholders after a disaster.

You know, one of the perceptions, again, about FEMA is that there's been a demise in the organization since it became the - under - it started to become part of the Department of Homeland Security.

George W. Bush let people die on rooftops in New Orleans because they were black and poor.

There is no question that FEMA and the National Emergency Response System did not fail America the day that Katrina hit. They failed the day before and the days before that.

The nation’s disaster mechanisms do not seem to be in the hands of those who know how to use them.

Washington is stuck in an endless cycle of disaster response. The U. S. Government spends billions of dollars on disasters after they happen, but it pinches pennies when it comes to preparing for them. And both Federal and State policies create incentives for people to hold and rebuild in increasingly risky costal areas.

I plan to work with all my colleagues on education and labor issues and to ensure the security of our nation by providing agencies from FEMA's disaster recovery efforts to the Coast Guard protecting our nation with the tools they need to be successful.

What we found out with Katrina is that the country is still unable to deal with disaster. God forbid this happens in San Francisco.

When we're talking about the "American response" to any disaster, it's not just a government response, an official response, it's a popular response.

When you have the worst disaster in American history, you've got to be attuned to expectations,.

The Maharashtra government is working out a package for the worst-affected villages of the state in the recent floods. But we know whenever such calamities occur; whatever we do is not enough...more has to be done.