Michael Chertoff Local Quotations

My own view is this, I've got to get my own house in order, ... I am not here to judge others. I did not have a problem with state and local officials.

State and local authorities have the principal, first-line-of-response obligation, with respect to a disaster of this kind, ... Obviously, the law recognizes they can't do it themselves.

last summer FEMA, who reports to you, and the LSU Hurricane Center, and local and state officials did a simulated Hurricane Pam in which the levees broke. ... Thousands drowned.

The very day that this emerged in the press, I was on a video conference with all the officials, including state and local officials. And nobody, none of the state and local officials or anybody else, was talking about a Convention Center,

Federal, state and local resources have been fully mobilized,

The way that emergency operations act under the law is the responsibility and the power, the authority, to order an evacuation rests with state and local officials. The federal government comes in and supports those officials.

I'm not going to judge others, ... I did not have a problem dealing with state and local officials.