Maxine Waters: “this is a very special time in American history. We have experienced one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of…”

“this is a very special time in American history. We have experienced one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of this country. We have lost lives, and we have seen this catastrophe mismanaged in ways that most of us could never have imagined. Mr. Speaker, I was sitting at home watching television, and for 3 days or more, I saw almost 30,000 people in front of the Convention Center in New Orleans waiting for food, waiting for water, waiting for some assistance. They waited and they waited and nothing happened. I decided to leave Los Angeles and join with some of my friends in New Orleans to see what was going on. After all, I am the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity of the Committee on Financial Services; and when people are homeless in America, particularly 30,000 as a result of a catastrophe, I need to understand what I can do to make sure that those people are housed, that they get some kind of shelter. So I went to New Orleans and was met by State Senator Cleo Fields, and he and his staff and others, we joined together and we went to the State Police compound, motor vehicle compound where people were gathered. All of our agencies were gathered there. The governor of the State was there. Mr. Chertoff was there, representing Homeland Security. Mr. Michael Brown was there, representing FEMA. The National Guard was represented and on and on and on. I had an opportunity to speak with the governor.…”