Alcee Hastings Quotes

Human beings are often at their best when responding to immediate crises - car accidents, house fires, hurricanes. We are less effective in the face of enormous but slow-moving crises such as the loss of biodiversity or climate change.

Hurricane Katrina was caused by political correctness. I said it!

Today, the rich bottom land of the Misssissippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help.

You can't vote that water out of the city of New Orleans.

We're learning as we go. We're a lot smarter this time. We understand what it takes to mobilize away from the threat of a hurricane.

That was for instance the case in Mocambique a couple of years ago, during the flooding catastrophe. Instead of co-ordinating assistance properly, to much time and resources was spent on fighting about the same helicopters and local guides.

We have seen levee breaks and flooding in the wake of storms, some of which have caused the loss of life, and USDA is ready to assist in any way we can.

No one can prevent hurricanes, but prosperous communities are much better able to withstand them than poor ones.

What changed in the United States with Hurricane Katrina was a feeling that we have entered a period of consequences.

It upset me that, five days after the hurricane hit down in New Orleans, the President's plan was for a day of prayer. I would have thought a truck of food. A day of prayer. Now, maybe I'm mistaken here and, again, I'm not a scientific expert, but isn't a hurricane officially an act of God? Isn't a day of prayer kind of redundant? Hasn't God already made up his mind on that sort of thing? So we do a day of prayer. The President has his stupid day of prayer. Three days later, Hurricane Rita hits. Somebody must have said something... something like, is that all you got?

When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn't just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms.

Since you can’t do anything about it, don't worry about the weather or the government.

If this summer is especially bad a crisis mentality will take over and Congress will want to pass legislation to show that they're on top of the situation.

It’s a huge country. Floods, fires, accidents. You worry, you make phone calls, you sort things out.

The devastating Hurricane Katrina, which revealed to the entire world the great helplessness in dealing with the destruction caused by this hurricane, because of the tremendous attrition of the American army's resources in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It’s bullshit. When people are dying, bureaucracy should be thrown out. I saw a guy kill himself at the Superdome. Two policemen have committed suicide.

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

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

In the pandemonium of the crisis in New Orleans, somehow getting people on busses took priority over keeping them alive.

This was the most anticipated natural disaster in history.

As with most politicians, it took a disaster for them to do something.

In the democracy we live in today, it takes crisis to get the politics moving.

For millions of Americans, climate change is no longer just a chart or a graph. It's the smoke on our tongues from massive wildfires. It's the floodwater invading our homes and record-breaking hurricanes and heat waves.

After the destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the shutdown of much of New York City by Sandy in 2012, and now the devastation wrought on Texas by Harvey, the U.S. can and should do better.

Racism is a problem, economic inequality is a problem, not enough rock n' roll on the radio is a problem. But all those problems will become insignificant when the oceans rise in a way that threatens organised human activity.