McCain Pool Report from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency

MCCAIN POOL REPORTS #4 8/31/08

Final pool report from  the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency's State
Emergency Operation Center .

After the tour, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, his wife Marsha, the
McCains and Palin made a statement at a podium in front of the building.
(Steve Schmidt left the building before they emerged from the briefing and
was pacing and talking on the phone.) Barbour spoke first, then McCain.
Palin did not speak.

'We want to thank sen. McCain for coming today because of his concern about
what's happening with Hurricane Gustav. We appreciate very much Gov. Palin,
my colleague, somebody I admire and enjoy working with.'' Acknowledged his
wife and Cindy.

Said it was providential that the time McCain could come was the time of
their national briefing on the hurricane with Texas, Louisiana Alabama and
Mississippi briefing President bush and receiving a briefing from national
weather service..
"Here in Mississippi, having been through Katrina, we understand we got to
pray for the best but prepare for the worst. And that's what we've done. As
the president saw and  Sen. McCain saw, we've done everything we can do.
That doesn't mean some things won't go wrong if there's a  major disaster
but we're locked and loaded. The people of Mississippi take this seriously.
We bore the brunt of Katrina, the worst natural disaster in American
historyand so we know what it takes to be prepared and we are prepared.".

“john mccain as we all know is one of the toughest guys on spending in the
federal government, a real conservative about spending." However when other
conservatives were hesitant about the cost of Katrina l" John McCain stood
up first and said, no this is the worst natural diaaster in American
history. We're going to do what needs to be done.''

McCain spoke from handwritten notes, which might explain some symtax
peculiarities:
:
“Thank you very much Governor Barbour and, uh, calling hurricane Katrina, I
want to thank you for you and your wife Marsha's heroic efforts when that
tragedy struck the Gulf and the state of Mississippi.”

We just had, as governor Barbour mentioned, a national update with the
president and the four governors whose states are most threatened. Texas,
Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It was a thorough briefing. There are
still issues and challenges, but the fact is that there is no doubt that
there has been, thank God, dramatic improvements since the last tragedy of
hurricane Katrina.

The coordination between state, local and federal governments is
dramatically improved. Governor Perry of Texas is dispatching C-130s to
lakefront Louisiana. They are still in need for search-and-rescue
capabilities as they try very hard in the short time remaining to make sure
that every citizen is out of harm's way. There is no doubt that the highway
capacities are strained, and as Governor Barbour mentioned the coordination
between federal, state and local authorities is dramatically improved.

That doesn't mean that every thing is fine. It doesn't mean that there
aren't still challenges and unfortunately some people have chosen foolishly
to remain behind. But the communications capabilities are dramatically
improved, but frankly, the communications capabilities are still not at the
level that we want them to be. I am grateful for the coordination and the
effort made these four governors, um, Louisiana itself obviously among
many, many threats in New Orleans is the rising lake levels that could
overtop some of the levees along with many other challenges that this
almost so far unprecedented hurricane in both size and magnitude is
threatening the people of this country as well as on the Gulf Coast.

And as in the past three times out four the hurricanes have made a shift
east, and so that the predictability of exactly where this hurricane will
hit is still not entirely clear.

We Americans, obviously, I am directing program changes for beginning on
Monday night's activities at our convention. We must redirect our efforts
from the really celebratory event of the nomination of the president and
vice president of our party to acting as all Americans. We'll change our
program and we'll be announcing that and the details of it in the next few
hours.

But there is very little doubt that we have to go from a party event to the
call to the nation for action, action to help our fellow citizens in this
time of tragedy and disaster, action in the form of volunteering,
donations, reaching out our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the
people who are under such great threat from this great natural disaster. I
pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary, throughout our convention if
necessary, to act as Americans not Republicans, because America needs us
now no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat.

And America needs all of us to do what American have always done in times
of disaster and challenge, and that is join together and help our fellow
citizens. So I want again, I want to thank Governor Barbour, Governor
Perry, Governor Riley, and of course Governor Jindal of Louisiana.

I also want to thank the folks at FEMA and all of the organizations
including the volunteer organizations of which there are already thousands
that stand ready to assist our citizens. That's what America is all about.”