when i came to fema, i asked why fema did housing. hud has housing in their name.ething immediately. we work hand in hand. with the tennessee floods a couple of years ago, we were looking at houses lost. a lot of people were being displaced. our great partners from hud got in there immediately with us. we were able to move people from one section 8 housing to another. they never had to go into fema housing. they did not have to move from place to place or program to program. we are able to move them into what would be their permanent homes. moving forward by that and focusing on what needs to be done as we're looking at a housing and challenges as we move forward. next we have infrastructure systems. i am not sure if anyone was able to join us from the corps of engineers. great. it is great to see you. çwe know the corps of engineers goes around the world building things and looking at roads systems, utility systems. it is not just the corps of engineers. it is looking at things we need to reconstruct. how will we do that? how do you wanted to come back? natural a

fema can take credit where credit is due.e last several years we have been expanding especially in catastrophic planning with our partners from the greater bay area in catastrophic earthquake response plans we developed in 2008 and 2009 -- excuseç me, 2010. i wanted to set the stage about what we're here today to keep in the back of our minds. the type of event we're talking about could literally provide çdamages inñr theç scope ofç e kinds of implications. 1000 bridges totally destroyedç networks disrupted or dysfunctional for two yearsç, maritime prison for weeks or months. çthe transport of 41 key intersection of highways, taking those 335,000 cars, making it almost impossible for them to move aroundñr, then the restoration of water facilities for millions of people in the area, up to 60 days to try to get back online. then the recovery of the refineries and economic redevelopment and slowing of moving 50 million tons of debris you get the picture. this is why we're here. this is why the city of san francisco has foc

then and fema now. craig fugate, he is somebody who spent most of his life in emergency service. he spent time in florida in emergency services. considered an inept federal response after katrina. >> that was a defining moment and bad moment for president george w. bush. there was the iconic picture of him flying over katrina looking out over the window of air force one. that is what the white house and the republicans want to avoid. the republicans in tampa want to make sure they are sensitive to what is going on in new orleans. the tone of the convention as we go forward is important. they already, as you know, shortened the days of the convention. the president has to make sure the white house does not seem to be overtly campaigning at a time of crisis in new orleans. as the president is at least scheduled to leave today for iowa on a two-day tour of college campuses to energize voters who are not as enthusiastic four years as for him, he will have to call an audible and not complete the whole tour i

bush had cut fema, cut the budget for fema.moved it from being a cabinet agency which it was under bill clinton down into the bowels of the then the commerce department i believe. because we didn't have a department of homeland security yet. and fema wasn't on the job. they didn't have the resources to be on the job. there it is. we remember that. it was -- it just brought disgrace to the bush administration. never really recovered from it. and that's what people are going to be -- it is the ghost the ghost of katrina and george w. bush now floating over this republican convention. but the third reason it is bad news is because over the last two years what have the republicans done? they have cut cut cut cut disaster relief spending, the very kind of relief that alabama and mississippi and louisiana and those states and those communities and the cities down there in the coastal plains need right now. it won't be available because of paul ryan and john boehner and eric canter and the republicans in congress. "the new york times"

fema is there for the duration. their consistency, empathy, the resources that they bring to bear -- it get down to the individual americans who need the assistance and have been overwhelmed by many different aspects of a disaster. whether it is the baptist kitchens which are phenomenal, catholic charities, the range of faith-based organizations are just phenomenally unimportant. the value they bring every day is just immense. >> i totally concur. i actually had to convene a meeting between dhs, fema, and dod's disaster response folks with some of faith-based organizations. it was interesting because there were a couple guys in the room on the government side who thought these folks will show up for a hurricane, but if a nuclear weapon goes off, they are not going to show up. we explained to them yes they will. they will show up. it is really incumbent on the different parts of the government to harness that. you do not want them showing up for the first time when the event occurs. there has to be pre-crisis coordin

. >> neil: with isaac getting ready to slam the gulf, former fema director says people are battening down the hatches. a lot of people are used to these sort things in florida and you always remind me when you come here during these events, that's risky. are we getting a little too blase or what? >> we're probably getting too blase, but to complicate this, this is a national special security event, so the lead agency in charge behind the scenes is the united states secret service. so you put them in charge of doing the overall planning, but then with the hurricane coming, obviously fema will become the lead in doing the coordination with state and local officials, but i would say that all the models i've seen of this thing, it could be a category 1, which means 80 mile-an-hour winds, a lot of rain, maybe a little bit of storm surge, but the engineering reports on the convention center, all of those look good. this could bode well for security purposes in the sense that the occupy wall streeters may not want to be out in 80 mile-an-hour winds. >> neil: there is that. you know, i famou

even now when things to build on what we did with fema is rejected the private sector. craig has done a phenomenal job of linking with the private sector. how to work together to hasten the response. in the second thing is the modeling we went through. when you think about the evacuating the city of new orleans, it did not happen in a week. that was months of planning. we had a buses and trains and airplanes. how many estimate they have no vehicle and would need assistance. i think we did a good job of modeling that out. i mentioned 33,000 people needed assistance, i think our an initial estimate was 45. the modelling of aircraft and where they can go to and how they can get back in time to pick up another load of people, how far a train can go. all that was done by doing modeling. i think the extent we can forecast goes kind of events we do pretty well. what the flood map program in phoenix, with the models look like for the different elevation of search and how far it will go. something more than meets the eye. there is a lot of work that goes into planning for natura

even now when things to build on what we did with fema is rejected the private sector.raig has done a phenomenal job of linking with the private sector. how to work together to hasten the response. in the second thing is the modeling we went through. when you think about the evacuating the city of new orleans, it did not happen in a week. that was months of planning. we had a buses and trains and airplanes. how many estimate they have no vehicle and would need assistance. i think we did a good job of modeling that out. i mentioned 33,000 people needed assistance, i think our an initial estimate was 45. the modelling of aircraft and where they can go to and how they can get back in time to pick up another load of people, how far a train can go. all that was done by doing modeling. i think the extent we can forecast goes kind of events we do pretty well. what the flood map program in phoenix, with the models look like for the different elevation of search and how far it will go. something more than meets the eye. there is a lot of work that goes into planng for natural di

the training never ends and experts say fema truly is prepared.om vacar, ktvu channel 2 news. >>> earlier in this newscast we had a live report from new orleans and heard from nicole collins and she was really being pushed around by the strong winds. in the next 15 minutes we're going to go back for a live update and see if the conditions have changed. >>> new at 10:00 the growing number of homeless youth in santa clara county. we're told many of those now on the streets were previously in the foster system. janine de la vega is live now in santa clara where she met a young man who is fighting the problem while living in his car. janine. >> reporter: julie there's an estimated 600 homeless youth living in santa clara county but there's only 20 beds in this one shelter. tonight advocates want to bring awareness to the problem. >> the only thing i do have is all packed inside this car. from my school books to my religious materials. >> reporter: this is where 23- year-old joshua vendlin lives. he was attending school but lost his job and could not a

through fema. and we need to do a better job of making sure those forces can operate in a seemless fashion but still recognize that under the constitution, the governors are the commander in chief of the senate military forces. well, statement, the president is the commander in chief of federal military forces. how can we provide for unity of effort? despite the separateness of those chains of command we need to maintain. the breakthrough, again, thanks to the governors, is to have an officer, a general office almost always a national guard officer who simultaneously serve in both duty statuses. federal and state. as jim said, wear two hats. a state hat, for forwarding up the chain of command command to the government and one up to the president in his role adds commander in chief and provide for the unit to i effort the close coordination between state and military forces that was so notably absent in the event of katrina and was so beneficial last year in hurricane irene. >> can i throw in a plug

the training never ends and experts say fema truly is prepared.el 2 news. >>> earlier in this newscast we had a live report from new orleans and heard from nicole collins and she was really being pushed around by the strong winds. in the next 15 minutes we're going to go back for a live update and see if the conditions have changed. >>> new at 10:00 the growing number of homeless youth in santa clara county. we're told many of those now on the streets were previously in the foster system. janine de la vega is live now in santa clara where she met a young man who is fighting the problem while living in his car. janine. >> reporter: julie there's an estimated 600 homeless youth living in santa clara county but there's only 20 beds in this one shelter. tonight advocates want to bring awareness to the problem. >> the only thing i do have is all packed inside this car. from my school books to my religious materials. >> reporter: this is where 23- year-old joshua vendlin lives. he was attending school but lost his job and could not afford rent. >> i cam

you mentioned fema. do you think the military, fema, do you think they ready now?i do think they are better off than we were before katrina. the national guard is moving forward. they have assembled group of herselves along the coast. they are chasing the storm. yesterd yesterday, the story was florida. today, it's alabama to louisiana, and maybe a bull's-eye on new orleans. so they are positioning equipment. and the first response will be the national guard. fema has already put coordinating efforts in all of the gulf states and along with the federal department of defense coordinating officers to be there to prepare. right now, there is no requests from the public for assistance but the national guard is koord nailing with the governors and fema and positioning logistics. so they are leaning forward. the issue now is getting the people evacuated. >> if you have a chance to voluntarily get out, do it as soon as possible. donna brazile, my colleague here, saying her family is getting out tomorrow. and issue v states of emergency declared by the governor. >>> mitt r

we have michael brown, former we have michael brown, former boss of fema.s man is about to be the millionth customer. would you mind if i go ahead of you? instead we had someone go ahead of him and wifty thousand dollars. congratulations you are our one millionth customer. people don't li to miss out on money that should have been theirs. that's why at ally we have the raise your rate 2-year cd. you can get a one-time rate increase if our two-year rate goes up. if your bank mes you miss out, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. >>neil: with isaac ready to slam the gulf of mexico, michael bound, says residents should be getting ready right now. you remind me, michael, if you wait, you are risky. are we getting too blase. >>guest: to complicate this situation this is a national special security event so the lead agency in charge behind the scenes is actually the united states secret service. you put them in charge of doing the overall msse planning, and with the hurricane coming, obviously, fema will be the lead with the coordination o

the president, fema, secretary of homeland security has sent us a much better fema than the one that showed up in katrina. we didn't wait until last week to start preparing. we've been preparing since katrina. >> the parish is beefed up since hurricane gu ststov. and michel claudet, are you ready? >> we're as ready as we can requesting mandatory vaccineses on our parish and issued about 150 thousand bags. we're about as ready as we can be right now. >> what's your biggest fear? >> our biggest fear if it stays on top of us and continues to rain on us or stays offshore and continues to push water into our parish. the wind doesn't bother us on this one as much as the water. >> michel, i was looking in your local paper and noticed the shrimp and petroleum festival will go as planned this week. i don't mean to make light of it, if we will push it off a day or two, seems like many residents are not that concerned. is that the wrong way to think? >> you have to understand, this is not our first rodeo. we've been through this a million times and that festival is in morgan city to the west. w

even now when things to build on what we did with fema is rejected the private sector. craig has done a phenomenal job of linking with the private sector. how to work together to hasten the response. in the second thing is the modeling we went through. when you think about the evacuating the city of new orleans, it did not happen in a week. that was months of planning. we had a buses and trains and airplanes. how many estimate they have no vehicle and would need assistance. i think we did a good job of modeling that out. i mentioned 33,000 people needed assistance, i think our an initial estimate was 45. the modelling of aircraft and where they can go to and how they can get back in time to pick up another load of people, how far a train can go. all that was done by doing modeling. i think the extent we can forecast goes kind of events we do pretty well. what the flood map program in phoenix, with the models look like for the different elevation of search and how far it will go. something more than meets the eye. there is a lot of work that goes into planning for natura

host: we are with joe allbaugh, former fema director.do have a special phone line set aside for those impacted by hurricane isaac. california is of first. john, go ahead. caller: good morning and thank you for c-span. if you listened to mr. mitt romney's speech last night, he took the opportunity for ridiculing obama about the concern of rising seas. he said, "i will give you jobs." i do not know how the pundits did not comment about that. the 25-foot high levees did hold back a category one hurricane, but what is going to happen when a member 2 or 3 comes rolling through there? not once did he express concern for those people who lost their homes who are in neck-high water over there. guest: one of the concerns you talked about was the construction of the levees. before hurricane katrina, everybody in the area knew those levees that they were only built for a category three. in an area where the corps controls that system, they have added significantly which has helped this time around. the levees that are in control of the parish organ

the folks at fema did not repeat the fact when we asked them about it today. result of that management philosophy, getting something done is nearly impossible. according to the report, because many of the most processes or manual, the culture had been dependent upon people relying on personal relationships to accomplish tasks. the gao called for an assessment of the fema staff to make sure they are assisting and how some people it needs to operate efficiently. in other words, the whole program needs a revamp. if you think poor fema is having problems because it is understaffed, no. the agency has grown. the extension passed by congress this summer address very little of these problems. it made an attempt, but addressing the bigger issues, not a chance. another can take down the road until the next storm and the next time, which will happen soon enough. that's what i think. let me know what you think. send me an e-mail at gerri@foxbussiness.com. >> coming up on "the willis report." our bankers getting a bad rap? financial institutions use to keep a high profile

fema has a responsibility to respond.e's demonstrating that the administration is on it and politically it's useful in this election year while republicans are having their convention for the president to show, i'm doing my job. i'm governing. it creates a more nonpolitical appearance. it's pretty much par for the course except for the fact that we're in the middle of an election season. and i'm sure the white house is mindful of that. >> john, there was some speculation we might hear president obama say something about the strategic petroleum reserve, which he did not. >> no. i spoke earlier today to jay carney, white house press secretary. he said all options remain on the table but we've got nothing to announce. typically the administration is not going to tip its hand one way or the other. i would be surprised if they do it. that's something administrations consider an option of last resort. but should you have a serious disruption of oil markets, i think the administration could take that step. >> we heard senator da

. >>> plus a rare look inside fema's war room here in the fema's war room here in the district as they respond to the anncr: it'll start out as concrete and steel... but it'll become so much more. a new world-class resort casino in prince george's county. two thousand construction jobs to build it. four thousand permanent, good-paying jobs when it's done. hundreds of millions for maryland schools... real oversight to make sure the money goes... where it's supposed to. but none of it will happen unless we vote for... question seven this november. vote for question seven. and help build a better future for maryland. >>> tonight prince george's police are joining the investigation. someone walking along a trail in little little paint branch park stumbled across a woman's body. >>> a truck driver was killed in fairfax county. that truck overturned on an exit ramp to i-95, carries 9,000 gallons of fuel which pleadly burst into flames. >>> it's paul ryan's turns in the spot light tonight. he will accept the vp nomination and try to sell the nation on his vision of how to fix the nation's tro

is the president and fema doing enough? >> i believe so.had a great meeting yesterday with the governor. they had a conference call with the president. and i feel confident that they have stepped up and did their part through this disaster as well as helping us with the recovery since katrina. we're just almost back to normal here in plaquemines parish. and we have over $1 billion in levee improvements still to come. we are looking forward to that. we need two or three years without another major storm to get all of those levee protection projects finished so then we won't have to be evacuating every time we have a major storm. >> billy nunguesser, thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you. you have a good day. >> you too. or try too, anyway. >>> recent taxes on the wealthy. we know what politicians think about that hot button issue. but what about the average american? we'll share that with you. everyone has goals. take the steps to reach yours, with us with real advice, for real goals. the us bank wealth management advis

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we understand the president has just been briefed by fema director, craig fugate. is that right?that's absolutely right, martin. good afternoon to you. president obama was just briefed by fema director, craig fugate, as well as the director of the national hurricane center, rick knabb. we're told that according to white house officials, he asked to be updated on the state of preparedness along the gulf coast. they're getting emergency crews and supplies all up and down the gulf coast to make sure that those areas are ready in case this does turn into a category 1 hurricane. we're also told that there are incident support centers that have been set up in jacksonville, florida, and montgomery, alabama. you know, the administration is always emphasizing this point, martin, that the lesson that they learned from katrina is that it is important for the federal government to be in close contact with state and local governments, before a strong system moves through, so that is something that they are trying to do in this instance. to that end, president obama,s after he was briefed, spo

some good news today for firefighters in east contra costa county, fema giving the fire destroyed nearly $8 million and as cate caugurian shows us, the money will allow shuddered fire stations to reopen. >> east contra costa fire protection got an early but welcomed wake-up call this morning. >> this morning at 2:00 a.m. we received an e-mail from fema stating that we had been awarded a safer ground for two years, what that means for the district is that $7.8 million. >> the grant will let the district reopen closed fire stations and rehire firefighters that lost their jobs as well as hiring new ones. the board of directors laid-off 15 firefighters and closed at three stations after voters rejected a proposed parcel tax in june. >> this is a very good shot of energy for the district, to get to go back and help the community with a better service model to cover the area. >> getting the grant was a long process for the district, the applied three times, the grant was created by congress to address concerns over the adequacy of fire staffing which was a hard reality for east contra costa co

we asked the folks from fema who are in the meeting today, there are certain declarations fema can makens require presidential signature. they say it has moved from their regional office to their central office. they have the request. they have not yet acted upon it but have the request. in terms of getting ready for the recovery efforts after the storms come through our pari parishes, our plans are to have 40 pods available for southeast louisiana, another 20 pods from north louisiana. each of those pods can each feed 5,000 people, so we're already prepositioning those pods and ready to ramp up additional pods as they become necessary. the national guard is in charge of that. we also hope to be able to get out, hopes to be able to get out with their federal partners with fema and do damage assessment flights as early as friday as well as on the ground assessments to start documenting the damage to trigger assistance for our people. in terms of digfferent agency updates, department of veterans affairs, preparations are done in terms of sheltering in place. there are vans and buses from

fema has really stepped up.tepped it up. >> everybody is talking about the storm slowing down, which can be a problem. >> people think of hurricanes as only a storm surge situation. but you can have a hurricane like this, which is not very powerful, but it is large, dump a tremendous amount of water, whether it's on louisiana or carolina or parts of florida. and do tremendous devastation, because you've got to have that internal drainage system. that's why we've been fighting for full funding for selo, the southeastern louisiana flood control protection. it's not just levees. it's not jump storm surge. it's pumping capacity which is important. >> you had a chance to talk to janet napolitano. what kind of conversations are you having? >> well, first of all, it's a completely new fema. completely new homeland security department that exists now. the fema that we have now is smarter, stronger, and more cooperative. so they have been contacting local elected officials literally for days. they had -- the president hi

fema is already on the ground. >> it is loud and noisy.>> in your lives ,, is it is stirring up memories of hurricane katrina . . >> at this hotel and golf or mississippi the storm surge from katrina rose as high as the second story . . >> as the storm of protest many people have decided to leave the town but some have decided to stay . . >>mark: the storm of also led the cancellations on all flights in and out of your lens . --new orleans. >>darya: before hitting the campaign trail this morning the president asked residents to listen to local authorities. our case on >>president obama: and there could be flooding and other damage. now is not the time to tempt fate of the core business official warnings. the >>darya: aside from getting off to a late start, the republican national convention will be watching tropical storm is it the things they need to make any other changes. >>justine: an emergency landing at oakland international. with the southwest airlines flight. the thought was headed to denmark from as the ball and was beverage oakla

they have to be somewhat depleted and i feel we haven't discussed fema and investigated that angle.a natural disaster by mother nature to be exact in quite a while. stuart: i must say the president resisted the temptation no doubt there suggesting this is not the time to cut back on government spending and services and he resisted that temptation, he did not say it. and the surprise movie hit of the week is "2016" and next, an honest review from someone who's seen it, someone who actually reviews movies for a living. >> obama has a dream, a dream from his father, that the sins of colonialism be set right and america be down size $. sized. >> isaac is expected to strengthen to hurricane force today and make landfall maybe tomorrow, hitting new orleans. and tonight, ann romney and chris christie will speak at the republican convention in tampa. and right now the dow industrials pretty quiet thus far and individual stocks are moving higher. it's earned more than expected not because of the u.s. and not because of europe, but because of emerging markets. a quarter of the catch up sales

fema dispatched teams to help with cleanup efforts and expenses related to the storm. 60 counties and independent cities. it will probably be months before local governments receive that cash. >>> and another storm we're watching now. the weather center has issued a release within the last few minutes at 11:00. with a pass that could include florida and the republican national convention. fox 5 is in the weather center with the latest. >> that's right. that track did just come out from the national hurricane center and this is about 290 miles east, southeast of san juan. so puerto rico may be getting tropical storm conditions as well. let's go straight to the track. so you can see what those changes are. not much change in the intensity. the hurricane hunters think that wind might even be generous. but it is in the process of restructuring. there's no eye wall or anything like that. let me show you this path. it does take tropical storm over hispianola. those are islands and that would do a lot to keep it from getting too terribly strong. you can see saturday evening around 8:00, it i