Political Quotes

“10 years ago, nearly 10 years ago, the scenes flashing across our television screens showed what appeared to be a Third World country--literally bodies floating in the streets, people that were homeless, homes washed away--one of the worst natural disasters in America's history. Mr. Speaker, over 1,200 of our brothers, our sisters, our mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, our neighbors, our friends perished in the disaster on August 29, 2005. We lost over 1,200 people, Mr. Speaker. These vulnerabilities were not vulnerabilities that were unknown. As a matter of fact, Mark Schleifstein with The Times-Picayune published a series known as ``Washing Away'' in 2002, years before Hurricane Katrina hit our State and caused all this devastation. That series accurately predicted, the vulnerabilities accurately predicted the outcomes of a direct hit by a storm like Hurricane Katrina upon our communities. We saw what had happened. Homes, businesses, monuments, schools, our history, our dreams, our hopes, our future were all flooded as a result of Hurricane Katrina 10 years ago. Mr. Speaker, this wasn't a Third World country; it was one of America's great cities that was underwater. Many people look back at Hurricane Katrina, and they view the impacts as being parochial, things that impacted Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama, not something that impacted the Nation. Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth.…”