because the archives have no way of knowing, absent the intervention of the lawyer, whether or not there is a valid claim of executive or some other privilege. bythere has to be a process which the request for documents is reviewed by the lawyer for the president. that is exactly what happened here. and that is exactly the same practice that has been engaged in by previous announcer: today on c-span, washington journal is next with your phone calls and then the american enterprise institute hosting a discussion about the 20 -- 2008 financial crisis. aboutose andres talks puerto rico after hurricane maria. in about 45 minutes, we will talk to retired lieutenant

general russel honore. also, new republic staff writer emily atkin on the environmental impacts and public health impacts of the hurricane. ♪ 'sst: hurricane florence moments away from making landfall in the carolinas on this friday morning, september 14th. wind gusts up to 90 miles per hour in some areas and power gone for hundreds of thousands. the government is warning it is a slow-moving, wide storm that could cause life-threatening storm surge. we want to know your calls on the government's preparedness as florence makes landfall. eastern, central part of the country, 202-748-8000. mountain-pacific, call in at 202-748-8001. those of you impacted by this hurricane or others in recent history, 202-748-8002.

also, join us on twitter @cspanwj or facebook.com/c-span. we will get to your thoughts in a minute. government's preparedness as florence makes landfall. hear what government officials had to say yesterday about this hurricane. [video clip] >> this is a very dangerous storm. we caused them disasters because they break things. the infrastructure will break. in the power will go out for a number of days or many weeks. >> this is still a very, very dangerous storm not only on the coast, but also the interior of unusuale and the very part is it will last for about two days. that means we are going to have to be patient. >> because of the slow-moving nature, it could very well stay with high wind, inclement weather for a long period of time, which will mean any rescue effort will take time.

government officials yesterday here in washington and south carolina warning people about the threat of hurricane florence. we want to know your thoughts on the government's preparedness for this. the washington times front page, florence begins battering carolinas. on electricity loss, duke energy says they are expecting, with headquarters in charlotte and north carolina and florence -- said florence could likely knockout power for one million to 3 million homes and businesses. washington times newspaper this morning, forecasters european climate 2 trillion toing 11 trillion gallons of rain will fall on north carolina over the next week. that is enough water to fill the empire state building nearly 40,000 times. more than 1.7 million people in

the carolinas and virginia were warned to evacuate and the homes of about 10 million were under watch or warnings to the hurricane or tropical storm condition. what are your thoughts on the government's preparedness? the fema administrator, brock briefing yesterday. he will hold another one at 9:15 a.m. eastern time. here is what he had to say when asked about the potential cost of hurricane florence. [video clip] >> do you all have a cost estimate yet of what sort of damage this hurricane will do? >> no, we don't have that. the storm is almost a combination of hurricane hugo and hurricane floyd. it brings elements of both. hugo brought high wind and impact. if you want to look at the disaster dollars connected to either one of those events, this one has the potential to line up

with that. host: brock long yesterday again with that fema briefing. he will have another one today. go to c-span.org for more details if you want to listen to what the administrator says. we are just moments away from landfall in north carolina for hurricane florence. what has been your experience dealing with the government or your thoughts on the government's preparedness for hurricanes? if you, last year, were impacted by hurricane harvey in texas or irma or those in puerto rico, for hurricane maria, we want to know your thoughts on government preparedness for this hurricane this morning. the wall street journal has a headline on their front page, florence threatens heavy floods. this is about how citizens are prepared for hurricanes. 134,306 policies

in place in north carolina from the national flood insurance program represented a 3.6% decline from 2013. in south carolina, policies were 2.wn 1.2% to 204,34 the junk page of the journal, some 3.6 million homes in virginia, north carolina, and ie in coastala l areas. 150 value is up nearly million dollars over the last five years as development and home prices boomed. the median home value in charleston, south carolina, is up nearly 32% from five years ago, still well below the national median value. most of the firms insuring these homes have extensive flood damage. many homeowners learn they

aren't covered only after their property has been ravaged. federally back home mortgages flood -- it to buy is optional for everyone else. asked year's strength -- last year's string of hurricanes was a wake-up to many people about the limitations of policies. policy ownership rose 3.6% in north carolina and 2.8% in south carolina. todd in california. good morning to you. host: i think i may have accidentally called the wrong line. i am not affected by the hurricane, but i think we should get rid of fema and enlist the red cross to do disaster aid because they are better at it. host: why do you say that? what evidence do you have of that? caller: hurricane fema was a mess and the response to puerto rico was a mess. i have always seen the red cross doing a great job.

some of ourslashed defense spending we don't need, we could help people in times like this and the government could help out homeowners. host: margaret in philadelphia. -- marvin, share your thoughts on the governor -- government's preparedness today. caller: thank you. does a few things good. this isn't one of them. first of all, the entire electric grid -- i am not talking about just north carolina and south carolina. i am talking about all the way up. protecteds very under and it is just not there, to be quite honest. this is no way to move electricity around when you get a storm that just it's there. it is very likely to go on shore

and sit there, just like sandy did, putting 10% of manhattan underwater. can you imagine that? there is something called nuclear power plants. they are designed with very little consideration about a storm that will stop right on top of them. outhe external power goes at a nuclear power plant, the grid power goes out at a nuclear power plant, it is not too far along to think that sooner or later, the plant will go down and 13 hours without power, roughly, you are uncovering spent fuel in the spent fuel for fires in the spent fuel pool. we do not need this sort of thing. we have got to start looking at

things in the modern world, which isn't too happy about this, and understanding that nature can beat us at our own game and we better design to it. thank you very much. host: wesley, columbia, south carolina. what is it like in colombia right now? caller: ok, my name is bill. i would like you to know i disagree with both of those viewpoints very much. first of all, there is enough stored power and you use what you can and people get ready as you continue their power. what happens is, they get to the point where they are able to see what is happening around them, which is basically, on average, only 50 to 75 mile-per-hour wind and they realize, they will be out of power for at least a few days and you don't just cut them

there isse you think going to be a waste of power, like the guy said. that is what i assumed he was saying. the people of south carolina, north carolina are helping each other tremendously. there is going to be a lot of help at the beginning. all you have to keep is just giving them the hope you have available -- help you have available by the government and what i am seeing here in columbia, south carolina, is everybody is coming together better than ever before. there is so much going on. when george bush was in office, he set an example that we better be more ready rather than less ready. host: ok. and you are staying in your home in columbia? you have not been given orders to evacuate? caller: right.

this is inland about 140 miles. host: yeah. caller: by the time it gets to us, it will be 35 to 40 miles per hour sustained winds. they always exaggerate over the line, which is good. you cannot cut off things because somebody assumes this or assumes that. just give them the help you have at the time and, sure, it will be a lot worse at the coastal than it is going to be with us. whatever you have got left, keep helping people as it moves inland and give them all the help you can add other people are going to start filling the gaps like the cajun navy and the people in the churches and so on. host: yes. do you have flood insurance? are you worried about that? caller: no, i am not. it to be honest with you, i am a renter. the landlord decided to come to the robbery and stay here. that is a very good show of

faith. he was living -- in florida. rightjust fantastically there in case we need him. host: your confidence in the government right now in south carolina? caller: it is very good. theink trump getting on national forecast of what is going to happen, the best he can do, he said he is going to do. that is all you can do. you do not, in five days later. you come in right away with all you have got and then you come in later. we have enough resources. host: mike desousa is a national geographic reporter in the carolinas. -- in north carolina this morning, this is his video of white out conditions in the western eyewall of hurricane florence. we will try to bring you more throughout the "washington

journal" as you let washington know what you think about the government's preparedness for this hurricane. in selma,tiara alabama. good morning to you. caller: good morning. fema is nots and geticient like when houses tore up and stuff. can't do funding pay for the help? these people that own houses and stuff, they start their own gofundme page and we could help each other. company, they act like they don't want to pay. you have to go through lawyers and do all of that to get somebody to fix your house.

how come we can't do that? at least we will have money to help each other. at least we could get $60,000 , you know, the insurance company because the insurance company, they be working to get you. host: the wall street journal results the whites -- results of the widespread lack of flood insurance could force homeowners to seek federal assistance in the form of grants and loans. a year after hurricane harvey left texans in dire straits, tens of thousands of underinsured or uninsured -- continue to struggle. fema and the federal government might provide only a fraction of what it will take to bounce back. if you are one of those people in texas and florida from last

year, we want to hear from you, your stories about dealing with the government and their preparedness and how they dealt with response efforts as well after the hurricane. right now, the washington times -- the new york times reports that in south carolina, a little over 3900 people have moved into shelters with three shelters completely occupied. in the state still has 31,000 people across 60 shelters and the washington post notes dozens of north carolina school districts are closed as well as schools in the university of north carolina system. governor ray cooper says 12,000 people were in 126 shelters by thursday evening with more expected to be added. an additional 4300 people were in 61 shelters a north carolina. in northin place

carolina and south carolina as hurricane florence looks to have made landfall in those areas. -- news, watch this video take place. it shows a topsail beach at a to station canopy smashing the ground during hurricane florence. some coverage on twitter as well this morning of what is happening on the ground in north carolina and south carolina. we continue with your thoughts, your stories as well. let's hear from cher in asheville, north carolina. good morning to you. where are you at? still in asheville, waiting for it. it looks like it is coming right for us. i am a katrina survivor and after the fact, it was not a pretty sight. i was in hollywood, florida, at the time and katrina was 20

miles off the coast. fors literally in her eye probably about half an hour and she took a left and went down around the keys and annihilated new orleans. i just have a question for you if you have any information at all on the manager -- i understand it is a woman. i missed the announcement. i am very, very concerned about horses out00 wild somewhere -- somewhere out on the island off of hatteras or the north shore, nags head. that is the top quarter -- quadrant you don't want to be in and i wanted to know if somebody, at all, could get a number for that woman because after the thing is out of here and heads back up to boston, my hometown, i would like to be on

some kind of volunteer rescue list and i definitely want to get to the manager of these forces and find out if there is anything at all i can do. host: we can try to find information about that. i think i have seen a story. caller: i did, too. i was just coming in the door and i missed it. i very concerned because they have got to have this year's babies with them and possibly yearlinhs. -- yearlings. -- horseman of over 50 years and i wanted to be help if possible. i would like more information on the 800 horses at the world games in try on -- because it is

very close to hear. any phone numbers or anything like that you can give would be helpful. host: all right, i will leave it there. we will go to kerry in west palm beach. what do you think about government preparedness? caller: good morning. we have definitely suffered our share of hurricanes. i live on the east coast. it has gotten a lot better. we suffered quite a bit of damage through wilma, florence, and 2005 and it has gotten markedly better in our area. our utility company, at least in my neighborhood, frankly, did a lot of work on the utility lines and during the last two years during matthew and irma, we did not lose power at all.

that is not necessarily the government. the only other thing i wanted to say was if you live on the east have floodou don't insurance, you are really doing yourself a disfavor. in our area, it is the cheapest insurance you can get. i pay a few hundred dollars a year to ensure my house from floods from hurricanes and just if you have a regular flood. one thing that could really help people is if they explore flood insurance. that statistic is really alarming because floods can do such great damage. host: yeah. the wall street journal this morning on flood insurance has some numbers on north carolina as well, try to find that as we continue to talk. here it is, this morning.

in north carolina, one of the 20 coastal counties appears much better prepared, roughly 60% of estimated housing units in dare county are covered by the government policies according to analysis.l of in south carolina, more than a third of housing units are covered in two of the 8 coastal counties. i want to read the numbers again from the washington times about rainfall. forecasters european climate predicting 2 trillion 1011 trillion gallons of rain will fall over north carolina in the next week. that is enough water to fill the empire state building more than 40,000 times. there are about 10 million homes under watches or warnings to the hurricane or tropical storm conditions. linda in lake worth, florida. what are your thoughts this morning? good morning to you. caller: we lived in florida

quite a long time and never had problems. we had friends in the cays. barrels and small houses. i would like to say something about hurricane maria in puerto rico. this has been a problem set up by the democrat party where they are attacking trump. there is a commentator on cnn with a history of bashing trump. trumpen demonstrated as -- at trump tower. withas been very friendly juan,-- the mayor of san who is also an american politician. she is a member of the popular democratic party. this has been a democratic set up trying to make trump look bad. he did a good job and it is

outrageous what is going on in this country. i don't think he did anything to ever give that viewpoint. host: you also agree with the president at that 3000 number is inaccurate and made up by the democrats? caller: the university who gave out that number is definitely pro-democrat. if anybody does research and knows what is going on -- your program, i have been watching you since 1988 to 1992. i am one of the old viewers. i am very disappointed because you say you are very independent and give all views and the proof is no one seems to know about what hillary clinton has been what she how she -- has been supporting financially. host: let's not go too far down a different road. paul ryan was asked about that number and the president's tweet challenging it and saying it is a set up by the democrats. here is what he had to say.

[video clip] to you abouttalk the president. he had a tweet this morning that challenge the report that said 3000 people died in hurricane maria in puerto rico and he said that was democrats out to make him look bad by revising that number. he said only 6 to 18 people died. you have been to puerto rico. don't make a person look bad. i have no reason to dispute that number. it was devastating. storm.a horrible it is an isolated island that lost infrastructure and power for a long time. you could not get to people for a long time because roads were washed out, power was gone and casualties mounted for a long time. i have no reason to dispute those numbers. those are the facts of what happens when a horrible hurricane hits an isolated place like an island. host: speaker of the house paul

ryan yesterday and on the floor, congressman gutierrez reacting to president trump's comments. [video clip] the uniteddent of states, he is responsible for puerto rico. a u.s. territory that belongs possession, property of the united states of america. yes, islands are surrounded by water. in case of puerto rico, deepwater. fema and homeland security never called the most powerful military in the world, the u.s. military, which has capabilities and capacities well beyond those of fema. from the beginning, the president's focus was on damage control from a political standpoint, not from a human life standpoint. the sad truth is that in trying to -- so hard to make sure the hurricane did not become trump's katrina, we lost far more lives. this was a disaster

mismanagement that lies at the feet of this president and his administration. what is offensive to many of us is that even though the president dropped the ball, he dance.g a victory host: congressman gutierrez on the floor yesterday prettier thoughts on the government's preparedness as hurricane florence makes landfall. if i had to get a motto peoplea, it would be expect more and get less. for instance, during harvey, my son was wiped out in both his business and personal home, which was a rental in both cases. visits and they brought in people from new york

-- twoer areas, two bit different people and he got nothing. -- andeferred to the they told him the most they could give him for his business is around $30,000. that is ridiculous when you have a business over 30 years old. don't expect much from a visit. getting ready for preparation by trump, it appears as though they have done a much better job. i assume somebody has kept .ecords and other information that was another experience we had with fema. it seemed we got unending phone calls as if they wanted to keep records of everything instead of acting or doing something for the people. i want to know overall how fema treating thee

public that had major losses as we did. going back to my motto, expect -- the public should expect more, but get less if they continue to do what they are doing. i have a great deal of respect for trump, his administration, his organization capability, and we will know after the storm, many months, how they do. host: this morning, we are going to hear from government officials, that trump administration. fema administrator brock long might be joined by other government agencies. the small business administration, the epa, others have a role responding to hurricanes. we will also hear this morning at 10:15, nancy pelosi is having a briefing on hurricane

preparedness and how the government responded to most recent hurricanes. should be joined by congresswoman velasquez, the top democrat on the small business administration committee. she might talk about the role of the sba. you can go to our website, c-span.org, for details of the coverage. but this -- let me put this on the table. the washington post has a piece this morning, from a meteorologist and staff writer. the piece is titled "climate change made this monster." he says hurricane florence is almost an impossible rare threat. powerful is exceedingly rare this far on the east coast. cases since our records began, hazel in 1954 and hugo in 1989, has a carolina hurricane provoked an 18-foot rise in the ocean tide.

a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor and provide more energy to hurricanes, boosting their disruptive potential. this is no longer just a theory. noce modern tracking began, hurricane with origins in the hundreds of miles wide patch of the center atlantic has ever made landfall in the east coast or even come close. thanks to unusually warm ocean water, florence has i -- intensified. warms in part to unusually ocean waters between new england and greenland. the atmosphere formed a near record strength blocking pattern, not unlike the one that steered sandy into new york harbor in 2012. that is propelling florence toward the southeast coastline trade another blocking pattern expected to emerge this week could block florence -- lock florence in place for days, which would cause a flood that

could extend miles inland. do you agree or disagree? we want to know your thoughts on government preparedness. has the government done enough or too much in your opinion to prepare for hurricanes like we are seeing? this tweet this morning, approximately 321,000 north carolinians are without power. the websites, visit and to report power outages, go to duke energy. joe in bradford, north carolina. is that right? caller: that is right. i don't know enough about sayate changing, but i will i am in my 70's and i have seen hurricanes reach up to new york

city. i have also lived for a while in new orleans and seen hurricanes. in terms of the controversy over puerto rico, i would like to say that i don't think all the facts are in yet. -- downdonald trump there and do a good job. there may be some deficiencies. i have a lot of sympathy for the people who went through that. i would like to wait and see what the actual toll of death directly from the hurricane was. we are all sympathetic to people who have been in hurricanes. i wish we could control our environment -- control climate warming somehow. can we really do that? we can.know if it seems to me the united states, after looking at some of the figures from a missions -- emissions, that we don't have as

many as other countries do. if that is a problem, i think our president would address it if he had clear-cut evidence to do it. i think he has done a great job preparing north carolina. imo amazed people don't move out of the areas being hit by the storm. looking at the reporters, it seems as though there is damage happening right now. that is my only comment. i wish people would wait before they jump to a decision about -- is wrong in what he said about the democrats . maybe he came out getting hit by that feeling i tried to do my best and they are talking me down about that. host: let's share with all of you a meteorologist from north carolina. he is tweeting out tornado watch from the -- for north carolina

until 5:00 a.m. the outer bands could produce brief tornadoes with very little notice. stay whether aware. also tweeting out a new flash flood warning. 6 inches of water can pick up a person. 12 inches can pick up a car. turn around, don't drown. tom in hawaii. good morning to you. caller: good morning. hawaii. it was a category 5 on the island of kawaii. it took about five years for the island to come back to where it was before the hurricane. i am watching the coverage on this hurricane. i have been really watching it the last week. five days ago it was a category 4 and had absolutely nothing but warm water ahead of it as it approached the united states

sayingnd everybody was andould reach a category 5 two days later, it was down to a category 3 and then 2 and it comes onshore as a 1. as i watched the coverage, i a meteorologist say to the american public, a category 1 can be just as bad as a category 5. this is the problem with the coverage of this event, that they have people believing that a 1 can be as bad as a 5. as far as climate change, i believe in climate change, but if you go back historically and look at the 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, there was a series of super hurricanes that hit our coast back then. it does not matter who is in the

white house, whether it is republicans or democrats or a businessman or politician, they all care about the american public. when i see people coming on your show and other shows and saying the man in the white house doesn't care about 3000 deaths in puerto rico, that is irresponsible. i can tell you, i have friends now in florida and they said the same thing. when fema came in and the statistics will prove, they did everything -- fema did everything they could to help those people in puerto rico. comparedhere in kawaii to any of the houses i saw in puerto rico, from there is no way those houses can withstand a hurricane force maybe even a 2 and there were two hurricanes that came through

puerto rico. god bless puerto ricans. the fact of the matter is that everybody is doing their part. whether you look at the federal government, state government, or local government, everybody -- look at that cajun -- what do they call it? the cajun coast guard, look at what a great job they did in houston and texas and florida. that was under this president. these people that are saying this president wants to see people die, shame on them. host: jody's on twitter, i wonder if there will be new building regulations when they go to rebuild from florence? a local television station in the carolinas this morning, new mayor out loss has around 200 residents have been rescued so far today with another 250 that need rescued in new bern in north carolina.

you can see some of the flooding happening. let's hear from albert in california. good morning to you. go ahead. caller: good morning. a longtime watcher, first time caller. i want to say for a long time we look at hurricanes in the middle of the atlantic and see them as 5 and 4 and by the time they make landfall, 9 times out of 10 3.y are 2 and 1 or even that doesn't take away from the impact they have on local communities. when we have a commander in a hurricaneompares that doesn't have as much impact on the eastern coast as it does in a province such as puerto rico and underplays the amount of deaths, i think it is

offensive to not only the people suffering on the east coast who have been rescued -- 200 people have been rescued from their homes, it underplays their suffering, as well as people who have lost suffering in puerto rico and i think we need to really focus on the evolution from it is a 5 currently and let's see where it goes to this is what happened and this is the in our -- as have involvedle would say, community. i think that is very important to know for all the people supporting trump, whether or not they are republican or democrat. i think it is important to know. host: ok. i think you mentioned the category of this storm. the national weather service or the hurricane center said it onpped from a 3 to a 2 wednesday and on thursday

evening, yesterday evening, it dropped from a 2 to a 1. government officials are warning that even though it has slowed down, it is still a wide storm and it is the surge that could cause a lot of problems and then you get this team of local meteorologists that have tornadoes forming as well on top of this. cnn reporting florence has made landfall in wrightsville each, north -- wrightsville beach, north carolina. walt in pittsburgh, is the government prepared? caller: i think they did a pretty good job. no one has mentioned when the storms hit puerto rico, the teamsters were on strike. everything trump brought in was sitting, sitting while the truckers would not move. i hate to say this, but your

you are c-span, starting to look a lot like cnn and that is pretty sad. host: all right, walt's thoughts. front page of the new york times, andrew cuomo roused cynthia nixon to win the primary race. he beat her by 30 percentage points in one of the last primaries of this campaign. it cemented his standing as an unmatched force in politics and a merciless tactician with little regard for diplomacy. that is the front page of the new york times. lawyer isniels' writing in today's new york times. the case for indicting the president. he writes this brings us to the question of who on the supreme court should be allowed to review an indictment against the president. judge brett kavanaugh refused to commit to recusing himself in

the event he was confirmed in a case involving mr. trump were to be considered by the supreme court. he took this position even though his views in favor of presidential immunity are outside the mainstream and he chosen byng -- president trump. this is wrong. indicted, trump be judge kavanaugh's via -- recusal should be mandatory. making the argument it is time to indict the president. times, days before the trial, paul manafort appears -- before a plea deal for the case against him dealing with work he did for pro-russia political forces in the ukraine. you can read more of that in the new york times this morning. there is also this story, the washington times, house approves first package of 2019 spending bills. funding process is that the best

rate since 2007. that happened yesterday on capitol hill. then the wall street journal this morning has a piece about in her movetein and yesterday, reporting a letter to the fbi dealing with brett kavanaugh. she reported to an fbi an allegation concerning brett kavanaugh that appear to be connected to an incident of potential sexual abuse when he was a teenager. it goes on to say that last week's confirmation hearing, a senator asked judge kavanaugh as a legal adult he had ever made unwanted requests for sexual orors were committed verbal -- assault and he said no. he said he had never faced discipline or entered into a settlement over such matters. the editorial board calls the move by dianne feinstein a late hit on kavanaugh.

have, awhat we last-minute accusation the origin of which is unknown. it says more about the desperation of democrats than it does about mr. cavanaugh and the real disgrace would be if republicans did anything other than move promptly to a confirmation vote. thatsa today has a story americans have seen around 16,200 ads on judge kavanaugh's nomination and here are the states with the most tv ads about the supreme court nominee. the judiciary committee yesterday met and discussed the nomination of judge brett kavanaugh. dianne feinstein did not bring up this letter when they met. we covered that discussion. you can find it on our website, facebook.com/cspan -- website, c-span.org.

chairman grassley said the vote out of the committee will take place next week. let's go back to our conversation with all of you about governor -- government preparedness for hurricanes. vinny, good morning to you. go ahead. caller: good morning. to rebut the last caller, whenever i need is a real report, i always turn to c-span. i am going to be in the middle of the hurricane win it stalls out. when you were reading one of your reports, the hurricane is going to stall over me. maybe i will post some photos on your c-span facebook site. host: yeah. caller: as for fema, i worked we had hurricane matthew and my boss was a wasicted felon that the fbi

looking for. we did not know it. he was using an assumed name. i actually still have his phone number. was he found out the fbi after him, he took a lot of the fema stuff and took off. i don't know if they ever caught him or not. there were some irregularities with fema paying people who did not work. host: when you take those pictures, if you post @cspanwj, tag us there. where are you located in the state? caller: you go about 20 miles south of whiteville, just follow highway 701. host: what are you hearing about -- you said it will stall over you, what are you hearing about what the impact it will have. caller: i think we are probably going to lose the house and the

neighbors are going to lose the house as well. we will definitely be out of power later. during matthew there was a lot over the place. we did not have power for nearly five days. i have still got my notes. i do rainfall reports and i posted them at a community collaborative site and i take rainfall totals and maybe i will -- themd some of those to you, too. it looks like we are going to be hit hard and i still have my old fema phone numbers. i am going to call them up to see if they are going to need people working. host: go ahead, vinny. caller: it just seemed like there was wasted money. a lot of us here are trump though i am.ven

you just have to winds -- wince when he says the scientists are lying about climate change. everybody has got to earn a paycheck one way or another. depending on who they are being funded by, they are going to say one thing or another. i think it is quite obvious this storm would not be as powerful just took itpeople seriously that there is a climate change problem and after this storm, we will see what the next one holds. host: our conversation continues here on the "washington journal ." what are your thoughts on government preparedness as florence makes landfall? we will hear from retired lieutenant general russel honore

and then emily atkin's will be here to talk about the public health and environmental impacts of hurricane florence. leading up to the 100th anniversary of the end of world war i on november 11, every weekend on american history tv, we are featuring special programs about the war. generalte july 1918, pershing created the army under his command and steps were taken -- that point was -- announcer: sunday on "american artifacts," we are in france visiting villages, monuments, and the american cemetery related to the battle fought 100 years ago along the western front. >> the weather was horrible. it was rainy, it was chilly. the american -- americans launched an attack headed north in the direction we are standing.

them, thet to germans, who had occupied this whole salient, had begin a withdrawal and they were starting to move their troops, but they did not move them quick enough. by the end of the day on the 12th, the americans reached the main objectives to that day and many objectives for the following day. by midmorning of september 14, the wholesale you had been -- salient had been liberated. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from baton rouge, louisiana, is retired lieutenant general russel honore . we want to get your thoughts on what you said in a recent interview, that you will not bet money that government is prepared for florence. explain. guest: i want to put that in

context. that was one piece from a long interview. at the time we were talking, we were preparing people for a .ategory 4 storm the government was speaking a lot about how well they are preparing. when you have a category 4 storm, the time that was predicted, had it landed, it would be like a weapon of mass destruction because it would take most of the structures down and take the entire grid down, plus with the prediction of the water. you are not prepared for in risk because communications as we talked to people, the people -- the government is there and all ready, we don't have to evacuate, we can stay. we cannot overplay how prepared

the government is because the government really doesn't do anything until search-and-rescue and during the response and that is slow, as people have said before. it is necessary and it helped people get back into their homes. that is the context i made that statement in. host: what do you think about -- caller: we should not give people the impression they are safe because the government is ready and they have some water stacked somewhere prayed what makes people safe is listening to the governors and mayors and evacuating sent going to shelters. what makes people safe is local governments go in and get the boehner will -- vulnerable populations. like this one, the one in puerto rico, harvey, katrina, elderly, disabled, and poor. most of the people from katrina, the data showed most of them

died alone at home. we still have a problem in this country getting the vulnerable population evacuated. host: what do you think of the threat of this storm as it makes landfall in north carolina? whether you lose your home to a category 4 or category of thehe en day -- end day, you lost your home. we may see whole communities displaced for not just weeks, but months, and years and beyond fromse it takes anywhere five to 12 years for a community to fully recover from a storm. if it involves flooding and the loss of structures, particularly those affected by the surge water and those that get two or three feet of water, that would be a major recovery operation to

get people back in their homes. what doe storm surge, you know about the threat of that and how, if, at all, could fema and the government be prepared for that? that is a -- their role isresponding to that negligible, other than encouraging people to evacuate. they have very little role. their role during the approach of the storm is to make sure they have the right supply, stockpile where they can respond to the requests of the governor. the real quarterback in these operations, the governors and mayors and how the officials. fema, what they do up to that point is when the president makes a declaration, start touting and be prepared to help with all the overtime many of

these first responders accumulate getting ready for landfall. once landfall happens and we go to search-and-rescue, it is thembent on fema, department of homeland security, and all development to beep -- the government to be prepared to back the governors up with federal capacity, army, air force, marines, united date air force, and navy as needed to come in behind the storm and help do the search and rescue, to supplement the first responders on the ground and provide logistic support as required. it contractsma has for. it does not have a standing core of trucks. all of that is leased equipment and or contracts. what we have seen with the government as we have seen time again, if the national guard cannot handle it in the state

and there are issues getting national guard with other states, we have the option to use the active duty military to assist the national guard and governments inside the state. there are about 7000 federal to includetandby air, land, and see capacity -- sea capacity. we did not do that for some of the other storms and the core engineers are decisive men engaged and have things pre-positioned to try to turn the lights on in critical places. why is that the best we? having the military on -- the best we can do for preparedness? having the military on standby and what role would they play? caller: they would back up governments in the state.

searchuld respond and do and rescue. in the active military, working with the national guard and reserve, a lot of our capacity to do those type missions are in the active component as well as in the reserve and that is your search and rescue helicopters along with the coast guard. they can come in and do aerial search and rescue in high and swiftwater situations, as well as getting people off the top of their homes if the boats cannot get in because the power lines or roads are closed. it is a dan amick situation -- dynamic situation, but you have to use all resources. coast guard, search-and-rescue, and bring in the national guard search and rescue have helicopters that can do the same type of mission as well as active duty. that is the purpose of all of those units at that time, to

save lives. that is the number one responsibility to protect the american people. host: what were the lessons ?earned from hurricane maria lesson ie biggest learned from it was we started late in terms of getting the right assets there to back up the state's capability. fema had a team of people on the ground. they had very little in terms of andhouse, stuff like meals water that can be delivered. then the devastation on the island with 40 bridges out and most of the roads closed and thousands of homes destroyed. the biggest thing is when the power grid was taken out and

destroyed. when we lose power, people need to understand it sets back the way we live 100 years. if you had running water and don't have it now, you have very little way to communicate. backup to cell phone and satellite phones, many mayors and county officials still don't have satellite phones. we learned that lesson going all the way back to katrina. if you cannot communicate, you cannot coordinate. a lot of that was happening on the ground in puerto rico. the other thing is we had a lot of tools in the box we did not use. i heard people say the port was closed. in the military, we have units called port opening units. that is why we have them. airfields are closed. we have units in the united

states military, airfield opening units, that is what they do. not used. in the case of when we look at i flew there on at, delta jet and i beat the ninee-duty army general days after the storm. our response was slow and when people tell you it was an island, and it was hard to get to, everything in the u.s. is designed to be expeditionary. all the wars we have prepared for, to fight overseas everything we have is mobile. it has to be put to fit in the ship or in the back of a cargo plane. we did not use those assets. report, as we speak 7000 now, we have over active military ready to back up

the governors and the national guard in north carolina, south carolina, virginia as needed along with ships that have been predesignated when they left nor folk -- norfolk to come and be signed -- behind the storm to do certain rescue. we have to have active military follow the storms in. it is not a job the national guard can do because they themselves are victims inside the state. it takes the united states navy to come in from the ocean with helicopters, with food, medicine, and hospitals as needed. the active air force and army at marines can come in with oficopters from all flanks wherever the disaster is and start to help with search and rescue. the plan that they have come i

have seen, and what i understand is a great one, we will see how we can execute it in the coming days. people are in a disaster. what makes it a disaster is that it destroys it -- a storm, if you would make an analogy to a football game, the first quarter of this event, you lose. why? that's what makes it a disaster. it breaks infrastructure, and it kills people. that is why it is a disaster. you don't -- regardless of how you prepare, the storm has a vote. , itill turn the lights out has the potential of flooding large population areas and it may go on for days. this storm flooding will not be

just a one-day event. the predictions are it could go for two to three days and still have impact on the same area that was originally hit. i apologize for the long answer, but in a real disaster, you lose up front. because of destructive nature of , and you can't really prepare for that. the storm has got to take its lack. work governments start getting graded is how do they back up the governors? the way our government is set up, the governors run their state and the response and the federal government backs them up based on requests that the governors have to the federal government. that's how the response and the national framework is set up to work. host: ok. let's turn to our viewers. we have the former commander of joint cast work -- joint task force katrina with us to take

your comments as the national hurricane center reports that the eye of the hurricane has made landfall in wrightsville beach. you can see the eye of the storm there hitting wrightsville beach in north carolina. let's go to dave who is in home city, florida. go ahead. caller: good morning. pricel, as one of the residence -- vice presidents of the retirement community corporation, was responsible for some of the preparations and planning for our communities from texas to new jersey. primarily at the end for the community so we are not under me was to hold a conference call prior to the arrival of the hurricane to check on everybody's planning.

we went around the room, or around the conference call, and arrived at our community in louisiana and found out that the community had done relatively little. as a matter of fact, they had no arrangements to transfer people out of their community to another location. question why, and they said because the state government never asked or required us to even do any planning. so, when i was watching the , ints unfolding in katrina was incensed when the governor and the mayor were blaming the federal government and primarily the president bush for thempetence when in fact people that were incompetent

were the state government and the local mayor of new orleans, who had never done any preparation and had their own assets in place up front. beingu talked about there the disaster in the first quarter, i would say the more important thing is do you even have a game plan not for the federal government, but for the local people, their own individual circumstance and the state and then the mayor's. host: ok dave. let's take that point. guest: he makes a good point. thank you for calling in. we still don't have a standard for nursing homes, because we still continue to put them inside of flood zones. there is no national standard and there is no state standard grade -- state standard.

we have a nursing home in louisiana and they have been evacuated three times since hurricane katrina. it doesn't make sense. why would we put a nursing home in a known flood zone? it happens all the time. there is very little standards for mandatory backup generators at these nursing homes. it is a problem. standarddon't have a record to make sure when we evacuate the nursing homes that the medical records will go with the patient. that still has not been sorted out. another obvious one that hasn't been sorted out, is that when the electricity goes out, we don't have a generator standard in any other state than florida and it is almost optional to have generators on pharmacists,

and gas stations. first phase of recovery and the first part of survival is to get medicines, fuel so you can leave and/or recover. we don't have those standards. i agree with him. there are a lot of things that we could do in terms of , andards of construction those nursingired homes to be evacuated. look at hurricane harvey. we had elderly facility there where you saw the picture where an entire nursing home -- they were sitting in their chairs with water around their waist. we saw with hurricane irma, the nursing home right there along the riverfront in jacksonville and we lost some people there because it was right there in the flood zone. i acknowledge what he says and he is spot on. at the most vulnerable

population, we can do better in our infrastructure standards if we look at where we locate those nursing homes. if you are in a flood zone, the first story of those buildings should not be where we keep people. they should be at the upper levels of a structure like that. ,f we don't have to evacuate they can sustain themselves in there with a generator. but that is a big problem across the country and throughout our coastal cities. we continue to allow nursing homes to be in flood zones. virginiarles, richmond p review our next. first i want to say thank you for your military service. and your knowledge on how to handle people. so, you were in new orleans and the first thing you did was took over the situation that you saw

that was wrong. around people walking with nothing to do and you saw the military and you saw that right away. but you're talking about flood zones, what is a flood zone? here in virginia, all you got to oris ride toward roanoke places like that. it will get hit by the storm. the storm has a lot of water in it. we got the james river down here , they've built a wall about 30 years ago or something like that. they are preparing to close that wall or not, i don't know. but, when you talk about the government response in all of that, people always complain about the government.

they say the government this, and the government that, but it's not the government, it's who's in the government. if you're not able to put the correct people in positions that know how to handle situation, you will have a problem. there is no question about that. host: charles, i will have to leave it there. general honore? when we look at where are we building now, let me give you a raw example is i can give you. a microburstad flood in louisiana. recovering finished from that 2016 flood. there are still people who live there finishing up their time in trailers because fema trailers and for them to use. the whole system -- it doesn't

work. as frustrating for people because right now, where i am from, in east baton rouge parish we are building the subdivisions in places that flooded in 2016. now, if those people try to get flood insurance, the flood insurance will be very expensive. most people elect not to get it. flooded, fema will be there to try and help them. said, we've got to get smarter at how we are going to work and control water and find places where we can build communities that are not in flood zones. that is continuing to happen all over. in a newll move subdivision and they have an impression that the local planning and zoning board approved it, so it must be safe to move in.

it's not. local planning and zoning boards will approve a ham sandwich. they will put a subdivision anyplace. we get a lot of local building in places that were swamps or wetlands because we put exceptions to the wetlands act to allow developers to take a piece of wetlands, drain it, put retention ponds on it and buy a piece of land that is unmitigated emma set aside -- mitigated, set aside, but the fact remains you are putting a subdivision in a wetland. those are exemptions given to construction in and around our mores, which create exposure of people to flood appeared i'm sorry for that long answer, but we've got major

infrastructure problems when it comes to how we are going to handle the water and where are we going to allow people to continue to build? don't even start about the federal insurance program. weve got places where rebuild homes over a dozen times and they still flood and we give the money to rebuild. there are some hard decisions, but nobody in the congress and the senate and no president has taken that on to try to fix that. host: and the washington times says the model is protecting 2 trillion to 11 trillion gallons of rain will fall on north carolina over the next week. that is enough water to fill the empire state building more than 40,000 times. roy in jacksonville, florida. general,y comment is thank you for your service. 20th engineer brigade. i'm familiar with the coastal areas that we have a couple projects some years back.

my living here in jacksonville, we had hugo come up the country some years back. the logjam we had in trying to get out of here was our biggest problem. in 15 hours. no movement. i was talking to my son, who works for the railroad and i made the suggestion to him because i had a friend in myrtle beach at the time. he couldn't leave because he had animals and neighbors who were all elderly people, mostly women , and some of them had -- they didn't want to leave because they didn't have any money. a contingency suggestion to fema and the government is that why can't we use the rail system to take the people out? where they are suitable for living. we should have that in effect right now. host: let's take a idea for the general.

guest: anything is plausible. that is another good idea to put on the table. but, we've got to evacuate people. particularly those along the coast that will take the brunt of the search -- of the surge water. that is another idea to put on ae table, but we have to have plan to get the vulnerable population. right now, there is a lot of talk but very little action in many places. the conversation piece for people to think about. i've been to cuba three times exchanging lessons on hurricane preparedness and response. the cubans do something that i totally admire. , they have awatch otherism with taxis and

transportation assets to go pick up the people that are on dialysis, and put them in a secure place where they can be treated. they also have a plan and they execute each time a hurricane comes through where women in the final trimester of pregnancy, they are taken in at the hospital actually hear it. that has been a true b did to them saving a lot of lives of the most vulnerable population. it is something we need to look at. right now, we encourage people ,o evacuate, but the government the most vulnerable population of the elderly and the poor and know who are at home, we who those people are because they go into dialysis if they are on medicare or medicaid. that is one of the most

honorable populations we have , who are onpeople medicaid or medicare. we need to be able to go in and get them before the storm, because statistics show, that is the highest population where lives are lost. not just during the hurricane, but those days afterward without electricity and without the orper treatment for dialysis for thoseing oxygen that provide those sustaining medical treatment. particularly with hospitals themselves, who don't have the proper generators. we can do better here the trains sound like a good idea to me as well. host: your reaction to this headline, the trump administration took $10 million from fema's budget to support ice. could that have an impact in responding to hurricane

florence? it will don't think have a whole lot of impact on florence, but if you were in houston, or you're in southern florida, or if you're in puerto rico, and you are still waiting on fema to resolve helping you get a roof on your house or to claim or you've been denied a claim, people ought to take some notice of that. moneypearance of taking from fema during the hurricane season doesn't sound right. in a long time, fema was not this homeland security. as a matter of fact, homeland security didn't exist. that was pulled together after 9/11. that being said, when that decision was made to make fema a

part of homeland security, many of us who watched that from the sidelines, because i was in that business in the army when we talked about that, many said that is not a good option. downsides off the having fema as part of the department of homeland security. now, there are a lot of positive things that come with fema being a part of homeland security, but one of the negative is, it is just another agency inside it legal inside a big old bureaucracy. i preferred the independent , for but governments presidents now have been comfortable with fema being a part of homeland security. host: let's go to corpus christi, texas. daniel is watching there. caller: thank you.

talk to you,to general. talking at the cost of recovery and vulnerable people, we experienced a high cost of replacing our composition shingle roof. roof tovery heavy replace prettied up price gouged really badly. it was $1800 to put on $1500 worth of shingles. i know the army has got to have on tensef intelligence and roof materials to get rid of this composition game because it is terrible how much additional cost and time that adds to recovery. thank you. i couldn't agree with you more. i don't know if the army or when a 2 -- everybody wants less it sounds like something that needs some regulation to it.

or county level, unfortunately the federal government basically will respond if you put in for a claim against her house and you , as they might say, you can get some assistance. he's empathize with what saying with things like the roof the costs can be exorbitant when you're trying to get back in your home. host: charlotte, north carolina. angela impacted by the hurricane. what is like where you live? caller: it's a calm right now. i want to ask a question. thank you for taking my call. as far as he said the warehousing military equipment in the same equivalent the use of at the county level, can that be used as far as helping as far as a disaster or is that in the bill?

are you saying can we use military agreement? yes. it happens all the time. of course, inside every state is the national guard and a few past ago, there was an nda that allowed national guard and together towork respond and save lives. when they need help, the governor of the state or the active unit themselves can come in and try to save lives without an order from washington. in this case, the military equipment can be and has been used over and over again to help save lives. as theo, general honore military stance by for orders or follows the storm after it makes its way across the carolinas, is at the governor then that says bring in the military? we need the extra help? guest: yes.

that is the normal protocol. the governor will ask for assistance from the federal government. that is the protocol. right in thece middle of the storm is for bragg, the marine corps, and the navy. if there is a need in the local , localty to save lives commanders can go out and save lives without waiting for washington to tell them to go do it. host: so, there are navy installations and fort bragg and other military installations in the path of this hurricane? guest: ma'am, this hurricane displaced more of our combat power than any other hurricane i have seen. you can take the entire landing fleet has been displaced. much of the navy, atlantic fleet

out of norfolk and hampton road. it is out at sea right now bouncing around. god bless those sailors out there trying to save those ships. with some of them on orders that will follow this storm in and be prepared to start assisting as soon as they can get in behind conceptm which is the -- a great concept and use of our navy to help with storm recovery and search-and-rescue. when you look at the marine corps, they are -- they're training base, they moved all of those marines. new that the army and fort lee, they have had to make some adjustments to their training. the tactical fighter aircraft at langley, all of those have been displaced. the navy, the air force, and the marines, and the army along the coast, all of them have been displaced. when the sailors took off out of

hampton roads and went off on the ships, they left their families at home. in turn, they had to be of theed to move out area because that area is so subject to flooding. all those aircraft that we flew airmen east coast, those and marines left their families home who had to independently evacuate and go to safe harbor. so, the people that are ready to respond, they have made great sacrifice to protect our country as well as to have to take care of their family spirit all of the young national guardsmen on standby in each state, many of them have families and they are on standby to help and at the same time, their families have had to evacuate due to the

storm. it is a dynamic process. at the end of the day, everybody wants to get in and help and i think from the lessons that were learned last year from maria, we will see a good integrated work between the state and federal forces in responding. do willthat we could relieve the pain and suffering that people will go through in the coming days as they deal with the effects of this disaster. that storm is going to have -- why we call it a disaster is because it breaks things and kills people. day, thed of the effectiveness of government is how quick and we go in and start saving lives? defectiveness of the government of the next two or three years, how has the government help them get back in their homes and create their communities? host: laura in ohio.

question or comment for general honore? caller: both. comment, i'm an army veteran that had the pleasure of serving in virginia. they have many facilities, orhibian vehicles in storage all of that should have and could have been closer and on standby to go down in hell. equipment, rescue people. they are flat bottom boats. they can get through areas that a regular boat can't. like he said, our military needs to utilized to capacity instead of us hiring contractors, private contractors, spending more money. already pay our military. they are already paid. this is more training for them to get more proficient and better at their jobs. why our government doesn't

utilize them makes no sense to me in any way, shape, or form. host: ok laura, let's take that. what about using the military after the storm is gone? guest: i agree. the first job of the united states military is to protect the american people. now, we have them deployed, fighting wars going on over 15 years now, but that is pieces and parts of the military. for every soldier or sailor or airman or marine in afghanistan, it takes three. one that just came back and one getting ready to go. that puts a big burden because we are so forward deployed now. but that being said, we have a lot of capacity here to be able to deal with disasters. normally, those -- i stayed in katrina for six weeks total. we have federal troops down there for about four weeks. once the search and rescue is

over with, we leave. that is the time we could use our assets the best. helicoptersover 200 . in puerto rico, they never had over 100. i had 20 ships and 20,000 federal troops. those numbers never came close in puerto rico. that is the big disappointment when you hear people say, we are helping, but it wasn't scaled right. i agree with the caller. there are capabilities that could have been used in puerto see be usedu will in this storm. that is a factor what i think is a lesson learned of the military leaning forward and being prepared to assist the state. host: let's go to seymour, connecticut. caller: good morning. i first want to start off by saying thank you. you were one of the first people who i saw that showed up in

puerto rico where most of my family is. advocated and with the dignity that you treated the people of puerto rico was amazing to me. i want to say thank you for that. someeaks my heart to see of my fellow americans not understand that the people of puerto rico are american citizens. . have family who served to be treated as second-class citizens while they can give their sons and daughters -- you are a man of the military, you know this. they fight and they are loyal. i don't know how much more loyal and you be to the united states of america when puerto rico cannot directly vote for a president, but will go to war if he calls on it. they go with pride. they do their jobs.

-- from new york who owned this shipping line, move after move, goods to puerto rico. that is totally stupid and that cost the people of puerto rico

and a strong -- cents. i know there are a lot of problems people talked about in terms of puerto rico, but why do we have the jones act? unfortunately, we suspend the thes act for a few days and president got a lot of pressure because i heard him say on television that his friends were calling him to bring the jones act back because they were losing money. the congress and the senate damned shamed of their selves. we had eight years of obama and 8 years of bush and clinton, none of them killed the jones act. it is time to get rid of the don't -- jones act, it suppresses the ability for puerto rico to acquire goods and services they need because it is

an extra almost 30% added to everything that goes into the dollar. i hate to passionately talk about something like this, but -- and upset. host: that is all right. we have to leave it there because we are out of time with you. thank you for the conversation this morning. thank you for taking our viewers' calls. guest: maybe one day you will have a conversation about the jones act and let everybody call in. maybe we can let the senate and congress get off of you know what and kill this. the only thing that -- people that benefit from the jones act are some rich people in new york. host: we have talked about it before. certainly a conversation we can have again. thank you, general honore. guest: good day to you. host: we will take a short break and when we come back, continue our conversation about the --ernment's preparedness and

today as hurricane florence makes landfall in the carolinas. we will be right back. ♪ announcer: c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service. today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. on q&a, richard norton smith discusses his biography of herbert hoover, and uncommon man. >> hoover said when all is said and done, a competent is all that matters. when you stop to think about it, it is a rather unsentimental -- the sort of thing you would

expect an engineer to say and that is one of the keys to understanding his life, his success in everything but the presidency. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. reporter bobst our washington journal guest monday at 7:00 a.m. eastern talking about his book, fear: trump in the white house. us to discusss his book "content: a memoir of the clinton investigation." watch next week on c-span's "washington journal. " >> "washington journal" continues. host: hurricane florence has made landfall in the carolinas. take a look at the wind gusts. the maximum wind gust across the

north carolina coast over the last 24 hours, the eye of florence has come ashore in 100 58 miles per hour in some of the areas in north carolina. we are getting your thoughts on government preparedness this morning from the national weather service bay area, taking from in-house computer showing hurricane florence as she moves onshore in the north carolina coast early this morning. you can see the width of this hurricane there in that picture. your thoughts on government preparedness emma what do you think about hurricane florence hurricanest recent the last hurricane cycle. we want to hear from all of you this morning in the eastern central part of the country dial in at 202-748-8000. andpacific, 202-748-8001 those of you who have been impacted by hurricane 20 her your story this morning about

how the government prepared you, how they responded and put your situation is now. your number is 202-748-8002. let's go to sandra in massachusetts. good morning to you. caller: good morning. my son was in the service 31 years and was looking for a job part-time or full-time. it was only just to help out or be there or whatever. for five outow up of the country for a job that people probably didn't know that vermont and new hampshire no longer -- doesn't have a preparedness for the red cross. he is one of five being interviewed for it to fly across the country and everything for the disasters like that are happening. two, i was in hurricane audrey, when i was a little girl we were

so scared. i've never seen such devastation in my life. god help us all if they don't get prepared. the drownings are the worst. my father had to go in to louisiana to shreveport or yuba exterior ofn the 500 people's deaths that wouldn't get out. they were drowned in low lands, they died from -- not from anything else but staying and drowning. it still goes on to the state. senator, cnn was reported that 150 people still waiting to be rescued in new bern, north carolina. general honore was speaking about the role of the military in this country and he was explaining that there are 7000 military personnel awaiting orders.

they are on standby to respond after the hurricane. the navy and other military branches are ready to follow this storm after it makes landfall and makes its way across the carolinas into virginia. yesterday, at the pentagon officials briefed reporters about how they are preparing for florence. here is what they had to say. >> because of the slow-moving nature of the storm, it could ,ery well stay with high winds ankle and weather for a long period of time which will mean any rescue effort will take time. we still have the limitations we have of operating within those weather environments will preclude us from necessarily coming in in the hours immediately after the storm hits. i would highlight the need, based on the nature of this particular storm to heed the evacuation recommendations. host: that was the pentagon yesterday. fema will be briefing the country at 9:15 a.m. eastern

time this morning. go to c-span.org for details of our coverage of that. fema administrator brock along will be giving an update on the storm and how fema and other government agencies, some will be standing next to him, will be responding to hurricane florence. what are your thoughts about the government's preparedness? leah in carterville, illinois. caller: as we are talking about the hurricane, and puerto rico, i'm disappointed that the media doesn't really give the whole picture and explain the fact that the united states does not own puerto rico. people do not seem to understand that the united states does not own puerto rico we cannot just go there and overtake puerto rico governments and do what we want. we can offer assistance to them, which we did, and unfortunately

there are truckers were on strike, they have a corrupt government, their power grid was broken. lots of things. but there is never quite a complete picture given. it is always just a little pinpoint that the media is focusing on. explain --ou please host: what you mean doesn't own? caller: well, could you please explain the relationship of puerto rico to the united states? host: it's a territory of the united states. so, caller: but we do not own puerto rico. they have a government. we cannot just go and conquer puerto rico. people, i don't believe really understand that when they hear the united states citizens, they our army can just go and overtake that island. host: if the government calls

their supporters in government asks for the u.s. military to come in, then they can go in. caller: that's right. and we were there and we were handing out water and -- i recall all that went on with puerto rico when that was happening. peopleally had our delivering services there to wear in the united states, a state delivers to its people. we provide -- the government provides the supplies and the actual rescuing during the hurricane. but it's the state that takes care of its people. i don't think that puerto rico is understood to most americans that we are -- we do not own puerto rico. if you could explain that. i would appreciate it. host: well, the new york times did a story about the investigation into how fema handled the hurricane maria. this is the story here july 12,

20 is when it was posted. the famous plans for crisis in order he got were based on a focused disaster like a tsunami. the agency vastly underestimated how much food and fresh water it would need and how hard it would be to get additional supplies to the island when the killer storm did come, they must warehouse in puerto rico was nearly empty. contents were rushed to eight that united states virgin islands which were hammered by another storm. there was not a single caught left in stock. those and other shortcomings are detailed in a fema report, this is not the new york times report assessing the agency's response to the 2017 storm system when three major hurricanes hit in quick succession. leah, in carterville illinois share your thoughts. i'm sorry, let's go to jason, who is in north carolina.

jason, where are you located? i'm right on the east come about five miles from the river. host: what is it like where you are right now? caller: it's windy and rain here that's about it. host: what are you expecting? caller: the big problem is, if they release water from raleigh. that will flood us out like before with hurricane matthew. host: ok. caller: my comment about government preparedness is what can be expected. i'm from washington, d.c. and i moved up here about 10 years ago. whoever, but it is a response to a hurricane. it is what can be expected to you can't expect them to go all out and save everybody.

you can't expect them to have everything right 24 hours a day. host: ok. jason, for you and others fema is going to be briefing on the situation at 9:15 a.m. eastern time and we will have live coverage of that on c-span2. at 9:15tune in there a.m. eastern time to give you all an update on the latest from the government for hurricane florence. we are getting your thoughts before that on the government's preparedness. vanessa in tennessee, you're next. i am vanessa appeared i am a constituent of the state of tennessee. i am also representing an organization called the american project. i consider the decision that president trump took of taking $10 million from the fema for the fema budget to support i.c.e . will have major consequences on the region's affected by the

hurricanes. i wonder if all of these efforts to relegate resources would be better used to increase the international budget? you must know the international affairs budget not only improves the lives of the most horrible people in the world but also our national security by fighting terrorists and improving our economy. it is less than 1% of the federal budget and they are planning to cut it 30% more. do you think the government should protect international affairs budget and aim other countries to lift themselves up? we wouldn't have to invest so much money on i.c.e. and fema would have more resources and be better prepared for it natural disasters like these hurricanes. host: all right. question there for all of you. rick, in beaverton, oregon.

caller: i was on governor buddy roemer's flood control mitigation back in the 90's. it was formed after a tropical storm had gone through the basin and dropped significant amounts of rainfall causing a great deal of flooding in that area. louisiana, as you may know is one of the most flood thrown states in the union. among the things that we looked at was the state gelid just -- state geologist who had done his original phd dissertation on the flood levels in the basin. he determined that the flood levels in 10,000 years have not gone up. 100, 250, 500 euros flood levels have not gone up. the people had moved down. this reflects as well on what the general was saying.

essentially, when you build your house on a railroad track, expect to get hit by a train. part of the problem is that people are continuing to build in areas that are honorable on the coastline and within flood prone areas and that exacerbates the problem that they are faced when these types of situations, hurricanes and heavy rain events occur. host: ok. some pictures coming in from hurricane florence. from the news. in wilmington, north carolina, you also have lori with this tree destroyed. a gas station demolished from florence's fury. and jeff frame, the eye of florence southward. it may emerge back over the water.

earl and nashville, georgia. if the government prepared? caller: hello? host: good morning. caller: good morning. my service the goes out to those that are in the hurricane. i just want to say this right here. i think we've got capital storm come through third i've been involved in storms. i've been involved in the military and we have gotten called a number of times to go out and assist people in those storms. rico, theyt puerto should send someone over to help the island. once the storm hits, you have people breaking into people's homes and stuff. enough people need to patrol the area. and, the storm here, i think the government should always be ready. it's better to be ready -- it's

better to be prepared. then unprepared. host: ok, earl. twitter, liberals are frantically insisting that global warming is making hurricanes different from what they have always been. eric, a meteorologist and stock writer writes in today's "washington post conquer climate change made this hurricane possible. a storm this powerful is exceedingly rare this far north. ever before as a hurricane threatened the east coast with nearly four feet of rainfall. in two cases since records began in 1851, hazel in 1954 and hugo in 1989, has a hurricane provoked an 18 foot rise in the ocean tide. a warmer atmosphere is to blame and warmer water, which can hold more water vapor, producing

heavier downpours and providing more energies to hurricanes, boosting potential. we already have evidence from around the world. this is no longer just a theory. began, norn tracking hurricane with its origins in the hundreds of miles wide patch where florence traveled has ever made landfall on the east coast or even come close. thanks to unusually warm ocean waters, florence has intensified as one of the fastest rates in recorded history for a hurricane so far north. what do all of you think? agree, disagree, has the government prepared or talks too much work prepares to much for climate change? david in denver, colorado. caller: hi. good morning. i really appreciate the program heard excellent program this morning. definitely putting the information out there to make people smarter. general honore laid out the protocol about how the military

communitieslocal are i would include puerto rico. in fact, he talked about that. you specifically asked him what went wrong in puerto rico and he said it. howi just don't understand one of the listeners can call in and say the united states doesn't "own" puerto rico, what is she talking about? you are providing information, laying it out there so that people can get smarter. and that is my comment. host: all right, david. from folks on the ground. the city of high point in north carolina tweeting out seven to 12 inches of rain expected with locally higher amounts leading to localized poor drainage letting, sustained winds of 15 to 20 mile-per-hour winds. coupled with wet ground will

result in downed trees and power outages likely. wbtv reports 105 miles per hour winds in wilmington and highest tests in 60 years. 1958 and helene and fourth lowest pressure reading on record. many reports of wind damage, flash floods, rescues and evacuations. john in virginia. good morning to you. if the government prepared? caller: well, that is the issue that i would like to talk about. one of your previous callers, a woman made the point that essentially the individual states and commonwealths of the united states have their own sovereignties. when you asked the question is the government prepared, the first question should be in our system of government, whether or not the local government, the

state government is prepared. well, we said government. we didn't just mean federal government, but government across all levels. you think they are prepared? well the states are sovereign and they have a responsibility to take care of themselves. the federal government, the u.s. government can come in and help them if they ask for assistance. i want to make the point here that it's the politics on the talkthat seem to want to about the central government coming in and helping rather the under our system, where -- where we have a system of subsidiarity in our country. the states have sovereignty on their own. the people of those states have a responsibility to take care of themselves. when they ask for help from the central government, then the

u.s. government can take -- can come in and including possibly the u.s. military in addition to the local national guard. your general was correct in terms of how easily -- how the things should be handled and he seemed to recognize that it is that subsidiarity between local state governments and the federal government that we have to respect. host: all right, john. another john in clinton, maryland. good morning. yes ma'am, the caller before me stole my thunder. governmentsd local need to take care of their own. -- we've gotrnor 50 governors. if they need assistance, then they go to the president.

that's the only thing i'm saying. the president cannot come into the 50 united states and say you're going to do this. he has to be invited. that has been -- that is the constitution. host: ok. and a couple of minutes at the top of the hour, we are going to focus on public health. the impact of hurricane florence on public health. , a staff writer for the new republic has written a piece about that. carolina, you have the farming their, coal, and superfund sites. on the farming, she wrote this in her piece on september 13. florence is expected to travel directly through north carolina's coastal low lands where much of the states 9 million hogs are raised. these hog operations produce almost 10 billion gallons of feces a year. enough to fill more than 15,000 olympic sized swimming pools

according to the environmental working group speared it is stored in large open air lagoons. they risk overflow with the massive rainfall totals. we will talk to her about that in a minute. withublic health risks hurricane florence. more of your calls though. let's hear from atlanta, maryland. caller: good morning. the government cannot be prepared and the traditional way. five out of the most 10 destructive hurricanes occurred in the last three years, but the president is not convinced it is global warming. he should at least give us a reasonable justification as to how to handle more devastating hurricanes year after year. host: ok. john in new york. impacted by hurricanes. tell us your story. caller: i'm not sure about global warming. they change the name to climate

change now. 1851 was when they were keeping track. i remember 1889 before the weather reports to keep track of. in the amount of time that we're one-tenth less than of a percent. actually the war of 1812 was won because washington had a hurricane while the british were taking other the white house. any scientist can look that up. i don't know about recorded hurricanes in the 1800's. how do they know the temperature ? they talk about this common data. the scientists are wrong on many occasions. scientists -- scientists, there

are only 00 stars in the skies for years. -- let'sthe scientists get on with it. host: we'll leave it there. we'll take a short break. come back and talk with new republic writer emily at-kin about the potential health and environmental impacts of hurricane florence. we'll be right back. >> coming up this weekend on book tv, saturday, at 8:00 p.m. eastern, fox news host, jeannine piero discusses her thoughts on the trump presidency and distractors with her book. >> i want to and came out and

one of my press people said to me, there's already an article on what happened at the dairy farm. and i'm like, really? what did it say? and it said nothing that i said. but they alleged that i said x, y, and z. and i remember sitting in the car. i didn't realize that it was fake news. possibly how can i won against someone where it's already rigged. they are saying i said things that i said. did things i never did five minutes ago. >> on sunday starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern. coverage of the 2018 brooklyn book festival with authors april ryan and her book "under fire" reporting from the frontlines of the trump white house. eli saslow with rising out of hatred, the awakening of a former white nationalist.

and linda greenhouse with her book, just a journalist. on afterwards at 9:00 p.m. eastern, political writer derek hunter discusses his book, outraged inc., how the liberal mob ruined science, journalism, and hollywood. he's interviewed by brent, founder and president of the media research center. >> does anybody get a real point across on television in a minute and a half? >> no. no, they don't. i'm guilty of it, too. you look for a way something that goes viral. producers are looking for something that can go viral. networks are looking for something they can put into a clip and post on facebook that will go viral. it's bad. good for business you get a lot of eyes on it. >> watch this weekend on c-span2's book tv. >> "washington journal" continues. host: emily atkin at our table this morning. staff writer for the new

republicans. wrote several pieces of late about the hurricane. hurricane florence as it makes landfall today. she'll take your questions and comments here this morning about preparedness. that te on july 17, nearly five million households registered for fema assistance in 2017. more an the previous 10 years combined. the wildfires in california were their own behemoth, requiring more federal response contracts than hurricanes harvey and irma combined. fema's response to hurricane maria was also the longest sustained air mission to food and water air delivery in fema history according to the fema action report. hurricane irma was one of the largest sheltering missions in history with . million people nder evacuation order. fema wasn't prepared.

couldn't be prepared for this hurricane season and hurricane florence today. has anything changed your mind? guest: absolutely not. you can't fema be prepared for magnitude of diversity of disaster that hit last year. and you can't really be prepared for this kind of hurricane that's hitting north carolina, south carolina right now. they are too big, they are too unpredictible. they are massive challenges no matter what. obviously climate scientists say because these storms are being fueled by a warmer weather atmosphere they are even worse. and when our administration doesn't seem to accept that reality sometimes, i think it's hard to be prepared for the larger, more dangerous reality when you don't accept that that reality exists. host: you also wrote about recently the potential public health. we read a little bit before you came out here about the hog population in north carolina.

talk more about what it looks like in north carolina and what are the potential impacts and what are people doing in preparation for florence to prevent a public and environmental disaster? guest: sure. every hurricane -- every large hurricane is a public health disaster because you have large flood problems, right. floodwaters themselves still warm breeding grounds for disease pathogens from mosquitoes. most of the people who die in hurricanes, they die from floodwaters. they don't die from high winds. so you have public health problems of every hurricane. with florence, there's a unique threat because the track of the storm is going through two large industrial areas. hog farming country and coal country. there you have several dozens of lagoons of animal feces -- north

carolina has nine million hogs, it's almost as many people that are in north carolina. so any hog produces about as much waste as two or three grown adult humans every day. at waste drips through great -- grates and goes into these lagoons. it's the same situation with coal. there are a lot of coal plants in that area of north carolina that burn coal and the waste, the ash which contains heavy metals like arsenic, chromium, lead, that's also stored in unlined pits. you can imagine with the rainfall totals that we're expecting with hurricane florence that's probably the largest threat we see from the storm. both have the potential to overflow. the hog companies and farms have been -- they say they have been taking preparations for this to happen.

for instance, with the manure lagoons across the area, the track of the storm, they have in the last few days have been scrambling to empty them or lower the levels. but what they do when they do that, they take it out and spray the waste fertilelizer on fields, crop fields. that's still the potential, risk to run off into drinking water systems. they'll try to cover them but what we have seen with previous storms the storms are unpredictable and sometimes protection measures fail. the only way to protection yourself against those threats is to make sure those lagoons aren't there in the first place. host: you also write about superfund sites. in preparation for florence the environmental protection agency is monitoring nine of the nation's most toxic sites known as superfund sites where various chemicals and pest at this tudesrisk spread due to rainfall. that's only a fraction of the

sites in florence's path which counted more than 60. what is a superfund site, explain how it works. guest: it is basically -- the easy way to describe it it's one of our most toxic sites, contaminated sites in the country. the superfund program was created because during the industrial revolution we didn't have environmental regulations like we do now. we had industrial facilities, wood makers, plastic makers, pesticide makers, chemical makers that produced a lot of pollution. and they wound up contaminating the ground water and soil around them. then those companies eventually went out of business or bankrupt before they were able to pay for clean cleaning up these contaminated sites. -- for cleaning up these contaminated sites. they come under the jurisdiction of the e.p.a. which has to look for funds and ways to clean them up. we have over 1,000 in the united states today. what you don't want is a lot of these toxic sites to get

completely inundated with floodwaters because some of the toxins, which can range from bad to extremely bad types of toxins, cancer causing type things, you don't want floodwaters to take those chemicals, run them off into more ground water and aquifers and drinking water sources. unfortunately because these are industrial sites, so many industrial sites need water to produce steam, to produce cooling. loot of them happen to be near -- a lot of them happen to be near rivers like drinking water sources. you pointed out in the piece which i wrote on wednesday the e.p.a. was monitoring nine superfund sites in hurricane florence's path. yesterday afternoon, thursday, the e.p.a. sent out an email saying they were now monitoring -- i counted 40 superfund and other hazardous sites. oil facilities and then other

sites that handle hazardous materials. that didn't include georgia. they were still counting the number of sites there. unfortunately we have a toxic waste problem across the united states that always presents itself when there is a hurricane because these sites are dotted across the country. host: we're talking about the public health and environmental impacts of hurricane florence this morning with emily atkin, she covers science and environmental politics for the new republic. explain what the new republic is for people who don't know. guest: the new republic is a magazine of politics and culture . we come at it from a progressive perspective and we have been here for over 100 years. host: what is government's prediction for the rest of hurricane season? guest: well, the government scientists predicted that this hurricane season was going to be an average to above average hurricane season. actually up until now it was really quiet.

there hadn't even been many named storms forming in the atlantic at all. we had seen more in the pacific, which is strange. now we have about -- i think we have up to five storms churning in the atlantic. we're not sure where they are going to go. as you remember from last year, late september, early october, is the peak of this season. late september is when we saw harvey and then irma and then maria. the way the atlantic looks right now, it looks like something like that could happen again. but at the same time weather hurricanes are so unpredictable, the fact this storm alone is on the track it's on is mind-boggling to people. that it's coming in to the north carolina coast and then sort of dripping southward before it's going to go north and then slow down and people are like, what? it's hard to predict what's going to happen. we know that the atlantic looks

like -- sort of like a soup of swirly, awful little things. they could all pan out. they could not. what everybody who has experienced a hurricane knows, it only takes one storm to make a difference. host: what were some of the public health, environmental impacts of last year's hurricane season, harvey, irma, maria. guest: we saw such unique public health threats with harvey and irma. obviously we see the ones we see all the time with standing water nd the flooding damages. in texas, harvey hit the heart of the nation's petrochemical facilities. if you have ever been to houston, you know, houston or galveston, you know there is almost a city of refineries, chemical processing plants just lining next to the houston corridor. harvey went right through that.

you might remember there was an explosion at a chemical plant. all these plants had to shut down in preparation for this storm. hen an oil refinery or coleburning plant, whenever they shut down, they release a ton of emissions into the air. there were air pollution threats. there were water pollution threats from sort of just tanks of gas and other substances. knocking over and getting into the flood water. floodwater is something you don't want to touch no matter where you are. just assume it's full of sewage because our sewage systems in this country are so old. that was the big problem in hurricane irma, they overflow when they flood. if you see floodwaters assume there is sewage in it. also assume there is anything else from any other industrial facility that's around. and harvey had a lot of

industrial facilities and florida had a lot of -- had a big sewage problem because just florida sewage infrastructure is very old and decrepit. host: who is responsible to clean it up? guest: local, state, federal government, public pressure. i mean everybody plays a role in these things. it's not a really, fun easy answer. it would be great if we could just say county governments are the ones or state governments are the ones who need to act. you need -- the first thing you need to have to fortify your infrastructure to prepare for these storms is public desire to have your governments do that. public infrastructure like sewage, that's -- it's just not the sexiest thing to ask for, to campaign for. i think we should invest $13 billion in our sewage infrastructure to fortify it against storms. that's really not -- but the

will to do that comes from eople asking for it. so every government agency plays a role and the public plays a role. host: hear from callers. matthew in washington, d.c. you're up first. caller: yes. i just wanted to speak to the idea of responsibility versus accountability. there's been some callers this morning, discussion about who is responsible, whether it's the state, local, federal. of course it's everybody. it's a collaborative effort. puerto rico, they pay between $3 billion and $4 billion in federal taxes. in light of this recent report from g.w., independent report, statistical analysis, reviewing death certificates where it's been determined that 3,000 people lost their lives, i just find it absolutely disgraceful that the president of the united states is trying to deny that report because of his perception that it might be a reflection on

him and his followers are just willing to fall in line and point fingers and try to distract away from that. i think it's terrible. host: emily atkin. guest: i realized when this was happening yesterday when the president said this independent study from g.w.u. said 3,000 people died in puerto rico, it wasn't -- it was fake. it was a plot by the democrats to make him look bad. it's false, obviously, but the -- it's also not terribly surprising. the president and his base, they don't trust constitutional -- i.n.s. constitutional -- institutional science, and you see that with their rejection of the science of human caused climate change. the science that says that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere make -- they cause global warming and they make rainfall that's stronger, etc.,

etc. but the rejection of peer-reviewed science and rejecting this death toll number is a rejection of that science. it's also a way to say don't trust scientists, trust me. the scientists are the democrats. so it's part of that -- it's part of that whole theme there. host: we heard from a caller earlier who said that the university who came up with the number of deaths in puerto rico was democratic -- was aligned with democrats. have you heard that? what do you know about that if anything? guest: i hadn't heard that, to be honest. however, i think universities sort of tend to be aligned with democratic institutions, at least students, young people tend to be a bit more progressive. and political views change once people get older. but just based on how this administration has treated

scientific institutions and talked about science, it wouldn't be surprising to me if many more people in the scientific field are starting to reject -- at least maybe not the republican party, but donald trump's republican party. t's absolutely possible that g.w.u. is -- the scientists are registered democrats, but the whole idea of science is that it's supposed to be an objective process, and the idea of peer review is that you are being reviewed and checked by your peers from all different walks of life. that's why science works. it shouldn't matter who you are. what your internal bias is. the beauty of the scientific process is that your community checks you. and calls out your bias. that happens before those results are published. host: "the new york times" calls the president's claim false and they say 3,000 figure comes from an estimate in a study by

independent researchers at george washington university and commissioned by the puerto rico government. they have a link here to the study. the researchers found the government data documented 16,608 deaths from september, 2017, to - september, september, 2018. they tried to avoid accounting people who died for any reason like old age. find out more if you want if you go to the study and and find it if you search independent researchers at george washington university. vince in orange beach, alabama. go ahead. caller: yeah. i completely agree that there probably was that amount of deaths. puerto rico's been rammed by democrats for the past 50 years. luke at the democratic cities in this country, it's the most crime and most poverty. they mismanaged. they have stolen. so, yeah, it probably happened

that way. but to think that settledle science and global warming is accurate, there's thousands of scientists and published papers saying all of that was a scam. the hockey stick was a scam. all the projections over the past 20 years have not come to pass as far as global temperatures. as far as sea rise. i live on the beach. been here for 20 years. the sea level has not raised one inch. we have had less hurricanes and strorks over the past 10 years than any time in the past 100 years. all their claims and predictions are just bogus. the sky is falling garbage for a political agenda. host: what are the scientists saying about -- like this meteorologist writing in today's "washington post," climate change made this monster. guest: climate change makes the earth warmer as a whole.

it puts greenhouse gas, which are heat trapping, into the atmosphere. and the atmosphere can hold more heat. they also can hold more moisture. it's basics physics. when the atmosphere can hold more museture. that doesn't mean you are necessarily going to get more hurricanes. it just means that when a hurricane comes or any precipitation event comes more going rain, ice, hail is to be able to fall. it's hard when an event is happening to place the exact climate change footprint on it. fingerprint on it. we do know the basic physics. what i would say to the caller is i would challenge you to find those thousands of peer reviewed studies and published journals that say the science is a scam. that say that it's a hoax. i think you would actually be hard-pressed to find those in

reputable scientific journals. of course there are scientists who don't think that human-caused climate change is a problem or as big of a problem as other scientist does. that will always be the case. but you have to look at is the number of papers and the number of scientists who do compared to those who don't. there are a range of numbers that have been put out there from 90% of climate scientists say this is a real and human caused problem that's making weather events worse. maybe 97%. it depends which peer reviewed paper you want to look at. the fact remains that it's always in the 90's. and any other risk you would take, if you had a 90% risk of dying from cancer if you kept smoking, if you had a 90% risk of falling into a grate if you walked over it, what would you do? would you say no? it's interesting to me that this

idea persists just with this particular sign particular field. but not with anything else. host: virginia, waldorf, maryland, good morning. caller: good morning. i just have a few things to say. i have a house, small town, rocky mountain, north carolina, ey always forget about the small pocketstowns. they go into the big towns. i'm like right off the tar river which constantly floods. any time a hurricane comes through, greensboro, goldsboro, we just flood. and they always forget about us. it's like these pocket towns. and they go out to the big wide areas, insurance companies play it like it's a game. we're paying for these multimillion dollar houses that are on the outer banks. it's crazy. it's just not well prepared. it's not well planned.

i think insurance companies play a big part in how things are done. i think they do it incorrectly. they just never let the pocket towns. guest: one of the things this hurricane is going to make people realize is that storm surge and coastal towns are not the only places that are affected by huge catastrophic weather events. like you said north carolina has cape fear, has the neuse river. all these large river systems that overflow at the drop of a hat. as the storm comes inland, as storms come inland and starts dumping anywhere from 10 to 40 inches of rain on to these areas, these -- the areas where you live are going to see flooding, too, and damage they never expected. there is going to have to be a recalculation by insurance companies and property owners

and developers on how they deal with these problems. host: caldwell, texas. you caller: good morning. when it comes to disasters decades some ex speerns after going to disasters we ask the government to fix it immediately. anything note heavily happen over the last 50 disasters as a country, as a nation. as citizens, we're aware of the problem. they fix our problem immediately because we all have to come for her and contribute

positive response. because we're going to keep having these disasters. i think they are causing -- being for caused because of man. man have a lot to do with a lot of it. i don't believe it's just science. i think it's man contributing in a negative way more than a positive way. we could all understand from the experiences that we can do a lot of positive things to solve a lot of the world problems going on right now, but we have to unite as a people and as a nation. host: leave it there. emily atkin, what is the status of the federal government responding to preparing for climate change? guest: well, you may have seen at least in north carolina, north carolina there was a study being commissioned by some scientists saying that sea level

rise on the north carolina coast by going to rise by 39 feet the year 2100 if climate change continued on the track that it was going. and the north carolina government wound up rejecting that study, throwing that study away. if it had accepted it there probably would have been some restrictions on development on the north carolina coastline. that didn't happen and development thrived there. and for many years, for many years in north carolina, since about 2010, climate change was a dirty word. i remember when i was covering the issue early in 2014 there was a big news story about how the governor of the town pat mccleary banned the word climate change being used at his department of environmental conservation.

you see things like that happening in our federal government all the time now. cking out of the playbook of that government in north carolina. trying to avoid the word. trying to stop studies that will tell you how much sea level rise s going to happen. at the e.p.a. a large program to expand where the flood plain really is since flood level has risen and stronger, more intense storms. how we should expand the flood plain and warn people. that program was stopped. programs to prepare superfund sites, to fortify them for stronger storms from the e.p.a., they were put on a halt. like the caller said, a lot of these things are preventable. i was talking to you earlier about the lagoons, man new lagoons, coal ash pits in

florence's path. that's mostly in north carolina. in south carolina they have a lot of similar problems. but due to public pressure and a lawsuit, a lot of these pits were drained and excavated. and now environmental advocates, public health advocates aren't worried about what will happen when the storm goes over them. because there was action taken. there are things we can do, and things we can do that don't even -- we don't have to solve the climate change problem today to make some of these pub lig health threats less serious. host: -- public health threats less serious. host: new jersey, good morning. caller: good morning. she was talking about the farms, farms spreading pig feces. omething i never heard of. usually they spread cow feces not swine.

let's just jump to the n.s.f. and how much is their budget, ow much they usually make. so they usually have 98% of the science community needs to agree with the census in order for anyone to hear you. then you got to think about people are saying the insurance companies, jump to puerto rico, wasn't it 30% of the island didn't even have power before they were wiped out? 3,000 people, that's a lot of people. how much are they asking for? like $187 billion or something. how much puerto rico is asking for? host: what's your point, zach? then we'll have emily atkin respond. caller: fema, sandy, fema came in and gave out $2,000 to everybody, anyone and everyone who walked up until the budget was gone. we came in and did all we could. we found out later there was

stockpile of water and all sorts of goods they didn't give to us. so when they say the president didn't help out puerto rico, fema got alt funding and money they needed to, and then when they got there, they really didn't do anything. host: your thoughts? guest: there's no federal government system that we have that is perfect and operating really well. and i can't say to you how fema's failures in sandy translated to fema's failure in puerto rico or in louisiana or in texas. there's never going to be a perfect disaster response. and every single storm has its own identity. its own problems. and every single response will have its own problems. we can make as many comparisons as we want, but what i would

recommend is sort of just looking at these storms individually, seeing what went right, and what went wrong. people in fema and in the federal government are trying their best, but they have to use -- the funding they are working with anti-leadership they are working with. it's up to us to assess whether we're happy with t a lot of people in puerto rico are not happy with their leadership of their local government and the federal government. and one thing i'll add about the first thing you mentioned about cow feces, pig feces. the issue we're talking about in north korea, it's because that's hog farming country. if you look at the concentration of farms, it's all swine. and they don't normally spread the swine feces on cropland. they are doing it because right now -- right now because they have to empty the lagoons that it's stored in. so they are just spreading it on cropland to try and empty the lagoons.

host: you can follow emily atkin's reporting if you go to new republic dot-com. and at twitter at new rp and emily atkin, thank you very much. appreciate it. we'll take a break . when we come back, continue with your thoughts on government preparedness for hurricane florence as it has made landfall in north carolina. we'll give you the latest from the ground as well as we continue to watch this storm go across the carolinas and up into virginia. we'll be right back. >> what does it mean to be american? that's this year's student cam competition question. and we're asking middle and high school students to answer it by producing a short documentary about a constitutional right, national characteristic, or historic event and explain how it defines the american experience. we're awarding $100,000 in total

cash prizes, including grand prize of $5,000. this year's deadline is january 20, 2019. go to our formation, website, student cam.org. >> leading up to the 100th anniversary of the end of go to war i, on november 11, every weekend on american history tv, we're featuring special programs about the war. >> in late july, 1918, general pershing created the first united states army under his command. and immediate steps were taken to concentrate american forces at one point on the line. that point was saint mihiel. >> sunday on american artifacts, we're in northeastern france with a historian visiting villages, monuments, and the american cemetery related to the battle of saint-mihiel. >> the weather was horrible.

rainy, chilly. the americans launched the attack heading north in this direction where we're standing. unbeknownst to them, the germans, who had occupied this wholesalent had began with withdrawal and they were starting to move their troops, but they didn't move them quick enough. and by the end of the day of the 12th, the americans reached not only the main objectives for that day, but many of the objectives for the following day. by mid morning of september , the whole had been liberated. >> american history tv on c-span3. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we're back here on this friday morning, september 14. we will go to the top of the hour today for today's "washington journal." and continue with our conversation we have had with

you all morning. government's preparedness for hurricane florence. we want to hear from all of you. your thoughts on. we have divided the lines regionally and a line for those of you impacted, will be impacted, are being impacted by hurricane florence. also those of you that were impacted by recent storms -- harvey, irma, maria. we want to hear your stories as well this morning. the national weather service says about florence, this storm will be a marathon versus a sprint. in addition to the ongoing dangerous storm surge and flash flooding, will be a long-term river flood threat, well inland, as very heavy rainfall continues to fall in the coming dwace. consult weather.gov for details. the weather channel says latest advisery, destructive winds, life threatening storm surge, and heavy rainfall will continue to battle -- batter the carolinas throughout the day. you can see the rainfalls there. reporter says he just spoke with the north carolina governor roy

cooper among the latest florence number, 100 rescues took place overnight in new bern, approximately 20,000 people now, 157 shelters, 400,000 people without power. we know we're in for a long haul here, but i think we're ready, said the governor. what were your thoughts on the governor's -- the government's preparedness from local, state, and all the way up to the federal level? on the rainfall, just repeat these numbers for you from the "washington times" this morning. in north carolina, the forecasters european climate model is predicting two trillion to 11 trillion gallons of rain will fall in that state over the next week. that's enough watttory fill the empire state building nearly 40,000 times. the amount of people that have been evacuated in the carolinas and virginia is at 1.7 million. and there are 10 million homes that were under watch or warning for the hurricane or tropical

storm conditions. those numbers in the "washington times" this morning. this mike levin with the latest on paul manafort, special counsel has announce add plea deal with paul manafort, criminal information has been filed in d.c. alleging conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct justice. there's this story from "the washington post" this morning, president trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort has agreed to plead guilty to federal crimes at a hearing friday morning, this morning. the plea accepted by a judge which short-circuited his second trial scheduled to begin later this month in the district on charges of money laundering and lobbying violations and details of manafort's plea were not clear, including whether he would provide any information to special counsel robert mueller. people familiar with the plea discussions have previously said manta fort has no intention of

-- manafort has no intention of cooperating with mueller. it's possible he could admit guilt without providing information to investigators. you just saw that tweet we shared from you. that's breaking news on that front this morning. our conversation with all of you this morning on the government's preparedness for hurricane flornse. the rest of the hurricanes that are churning in the atlantic, hurricane season not over. to james in south bend, indiana. hi, james. caller: good morning. we love your show. host: good morning. caller: we love your middle of the road. i like the middle of the road. you guys are middle of the road. that's a compliment. you are the yellow line. host: thank you. caller: god bless you for that. government preparedness starts with the oil and energy companies paying for this mess that they created. and i'll leave all your christian listeners, viewers a little bible food for thought here from revelations.

god will destroy those that destroy the earth. revelations 11 and timothy 6:10, for the love of money is the root of all evil. capitalism is not always a christian value. thank you. host: jennifer, norts palm beach, florida. good morning. caller: yes. hi. i just wanted to talk about the economic impact after the storm. south florida. so we had jean come through. the first hurricane we were not prepared at all. we could have lost our roof. we were just really kind of blown away, literally, by the experience. a lot of us had to get home equity loans and get windstorm resistant garage doors and things. we almost lost our garage door. we took on home equity loans. then the costs of the windstorm went from $750 a year to like

$4,000. host: for what? caller: for windstorm insurance. host: ok. caller: to protect your home from a hurricane. the loss of just your daily -- your monthly income, the ability to spend on other things like clothes or whatever things, just went out the window after these storms and remains with you for decades. host: do you know--did you buy that insurance? have you kept up with it? caller: it's basically mandatory if you have a mortgage down here. every time we have a storm, you just look -- your monthly payments going up like crazy. and a you just have to kind of build it into your budget. a lot of people have ended up selling their homes or losing their homes because of the economic impact. there were foreclosures around

us. i'd love to see as far as the government, aid love to see some restraints put on the windstorm insurance. maybe even have creative ways, like a lottery to help subsidize windstorm insurance to keep it more affordable. especially for elderly. things like that. it's a huge economic impact. host: jennifer, there is a related piece in the "wall street journal" we read from earlier where they note, a quote, we have seen people who have gotten their mortgages paid off, even if they are in a high-risk flood zone, they haven't experienced flooding in their neighborhood so they say i'm not going to pay $1,000 for this insurance. one recent example an other after large elevated and exspeansive home in north carolina faced a $9,701 annual flood insurance premium. they said, we'll roll the dice. at that price, up from $5,600 in 2006. jayson, gilroy, california, go ahead. you are on the air.

caller: good morning. i just wanted to say that i think everybody's coming together right. i think americans as we stand are all going to come together. i just wanted to say thank you. host: ok. fema administration held a briefing this morning at around 9:15. and this is what they had to say about the latest on hurricane florence. >> we stand ready to support our state and local first responders. there are many areas that are currently in the heart of the storm. and there are many areas that will be as the day moves through today, tomorrow, and through the weekend. as you know, there are certain areas that with our first responders it is not safe for them to respond and we fully support that. by all means. those citizens that did not heed the evacuation warnings, it's

time to stay where you are. do the best you can to protect yourself and property and your family. we're in constant contact with both north carolina, south carolina, and also virginia. at the state level. we also have teams that are embedded at our state emergency operation centers and in contact with our local emergency managers. both states have activated their national guard as well as their emergency operations plan. as you know our national guard does tremendous work across our nation. and they just do a wonderful job both at the national level and also their state duty protecting the citizens of the representative states. host: if you'd like to see all of today's fema briefing, you can go to our website, c spament.org you can find it there. -- c-span.org. you can find it there. also 10:30 eastern time, nancy pelosi, minority leader, she'll hold a briefing on the government's preparedness for this hurricane and the most

recent ones. she'll have democratic members with her for that. let's go to curtis in mississippi. hi, curtis. good morning. what are your thoughts on government preparedness? caller: i don't think they prepare. first of all, their hands are tied. like the e.p.a. and all. when you have something like -- i remember katrina and i remember camille and stuff like that. the government seems like they cared more. and just like the lady on earlier, preparedness, i don't think so. any time you got administration hat they can just take money from fema -- i don't guess a lot of people remember. they took $10 million from the fema fund and gave it to i.c.e. to support our border. this is crazy. host: charles in winston-salem, north carolina. charles, good morning. your story. caller: good morning.

i'm calling with a reporter on the impact from hugo back in those days several years ago. and also comments if you'll allow me. one on the impact of hugo i was superintendent of and hugo came through and blew the call completely off. i was at home where everybody else was. they came and got me and weent out and saw the wall was down. we reacted and got a hold a man come in and put the plastic up right away. got the wall covered up and back in business two days. everything, not fully, we had to repair the machines damaged by water, it wasn't any government reaction that took care of that. it was an individual company, individual people that had to do it. the next point i want to make, you talk about global warming, if you please go back and listen on gee wn program

yogegrapher matters. he explains in that about global warming where it's over a period of time beyond where we're now. he says we're in a cooling -- warm part after cooling age. please listen to that and get you some knowledge on that because you need it in my humble opinion. and i think that the government cannot do as much -- all you can yourself. north carolina's doing fine on it now. i think they have done all the preparation they can. particularly after all the publicity, liberal democrats have made katrina where they sat back on their rear end. this is -- everybody's reacted to the foolishness and i believe they have done all they can do. and i'm anxiously waiting for it to blow through here where i think we're going to get wind damage and water damage, but not anything approaching what they got down east.

theother comment, please a, old days, different one, the old guys, and later in charge now, rgot her name, and of course brown could suddenly question anything about anything and not enter into the conversation and make corrections and comments. you, greta, are the one that does that. some of the other newer ones does, and in my opinion have lowered the value of c-span. c-span used to be completely unbiased. and now everybody in washington has got to get him because they playhouse is destroyed. thank you very much. letting me make my comment. host: you bet. the "wall street journal." matter is sent to the f.b.i. an update ton judge brett kavanaugh's nomination to the supreme court. dianne feinstein said she sent a letter to the f.b.i. related to

an incident, potential sexual abuse when he was a teenager. last week's confirmation hearing, some of you may remember, senator hirono asked judge kavanaugh if as a legal adult he ever made unwanted request for sexual favors or committed any verbal or sexual harassment of a sexual nature. he said no. he said he never placed disciplinary or entered into a setment over such matters. and the -- patrick leahy, the democrat from vermont who used to be the top democrat of the senate judiciary committee, writes a piece in today's opinion section of the "washington post," the truth and the judge. he says last week i uncovered new evidence the supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh misled the senate from his earlier hearings, by minimizing and denying his involvement in bush era controversies. i gave him the opportunity to correct his testimony last week, he chose instead to double down.

we're going to ask senator leahy about this, the kavanaugh nomination, senator dianne feinstein's letter as well when he sits down for this week's newsmakers which airs on sunday at 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a. eastern time. to jerry in somer set, contract c good morning. caller: good morning. i'm a 36-year volunteer fireman, first responder. and i want to point out to everyone probably the first face you are going to see on any emergency scene is your local responders. after that, probably going to be people from the surrounding counties. and after that of course you may get the national guard and the other agencies. but it's very important that you support your local fire departments and different agencies because they are probably going to be the first ones you are going to see. thank you for the time, greta. hope you along with your hitsens have a great day. host: frank in eastern

pennsylvania. what do you think about the government's preparedness today and the days going forward to respond to hurricane florence? caller: yes. i went through three presidential declarations of natural disaster less than two years. that were man-made disasters from

off of me and get a satisfaction piece, they say there's no record for it. and that's not the biggest thing about it. all the bees died that pollenate everything. host: frank. programming note for all of you, this weekend c-span cities tour explores the american story as we travel to lake charles, louisiana, to feature the history and literary life. how severe weather has affected that city, as well as the petrochemical industry has led to the area's economic growth. >> lake charles is actually the parish in louisiana in the extreme southwest corner of the state. state. weather affec% southwest louisiana is the number one explorer for lng for the united states of america. lake charles someone of those cities where there is enough population where a businessperson can make a living and good living. we're small enough city where one person can still have a huge impact on the future of this city. and i like that. i like that we're still a very personal city and of course i want to see us grow. but i like that the citizens here really care and feel like

they can make a difference by getting involved. host: to learn more about lake charles, tune in this weekend to book tv and american history tv. and you can follow and watch all of the cities we visited on our c-span cities tour if you go to c-span.org/citiestour. stephanie in buoy, maryland. what's your story about -- bowie, maryland. what's your story? caller: i do think the government is prepared. when i think back to new orleans and what they are dealt with and still dealing with, the federal government had everything they needed there ready, on the island, or ready to get to the island. i believe it was the local officials that seemed quite unprepared or maybe chose to not be as helpful as they could have been because of the president in the white house. i do believe that climate change

does occur, absolutely. the problem is the liberals don't seem to be able to explain how it is that human beings are responsible for it. and scientists can't even completely agree. i'm not sure how we can affect the weather and how they believe guess, ald trump is, i magnificent enough spirit or soul that he can affect the weather. it just doesn't make sense. trump has done a good job of being prepared for this. overly prepared probably because of the putdowns that he gets. i'm sure this is going to work out very well if people want to be honest. it will turn out fine. and i do pray for the people that are dealing with this. i pray for new orleans. and i do hope that the people -- i'm sorry, in puerto rico, not

new orleans. in puerto rico. i hope that they can get their power and electricity back on better than it was even before the storm. host: i'm going to try to get steve in in hudson, florida, before we have to say goodbye. hi. caller: hi. how are you this morning? host: go ahead. caller: i'm just -- i live in florida where i'm lucky the state has taken care of us as far as preparedness and such. i'm just listening to the show and i am aamazed -- i'm amazed how political we're turning this thing into. is it a democratic storm? republican storm? it's a storm. and we just need to look at it that way. and quit being so goofy. host: steve, what do you think about government preparedness on the local and state level? caller: i couldn't speak to carolinas or puerto rico.

host: but in florida. hurricane season's not over. caller: as far as florida goes. i think the government's very prepared. we learn more and do bert every time. it seems like as far as preparedness i think florida's pretty much at the top of the list for the country. host: ok. steve in hudson, florida. a few -- minute or two left here . actually i think we can go now to the american enterprise institute. actually having a discussion in washington today at the american enterprise institute about the 2008 nngs crisis. jeb financial chair hensarling, a republican of texas, will be talking abo