Fmr. FEMA Director's Warning on Louisiana Flooding
Former FEMA Director Michael Brown weighed in on the devastating floods in southern Louisiana near the state’s capital of Baton Rouge.
“The response has been incredible. You never compare disasters because when a disaster hits you, it’s the worst thing that can happen. But to give it a little perspective, there’ve been approximately 20,000 rescues so far that Louisiana National Guard, the Department of Wildlife and frankly just people that have flat-bottomed boats that are going out on their own and rescuing people – and that compares to 60,000 plus rescues during Hurricane Katrina,” Brown told the FOX Business Network’s Sandra Smith.
In one dramatic example of those rescues and the selfless acts of many Louisiana residents, men in their own flat-bottomed boat found a woman and her dog in a sinking car. One of the men jumped in the water and saved the woman from the car along with her dog. Video of the rescue has since gone viral.
According to Brown, stories such as this as well as reports that Airbnb in nearby New Orleans is taking steps to help those who need housing assistance are examples of the nature of Americans to aid one another during difficult times.
“Anytime a disaster occurs, there are always problems because that’s the inherent nature of a disaster. But what we tend to not focus on is exactly what you’re talking about and that is American citizens helping American citizens and that happens and it happened in every disaster that I ever handled. It happened in disasters in the past, it will always happen because that’s the very nature of American citizens. We just naturally gravitate to helping one another.”
Brown then weighed in on reports the flooding will continue, but cautioned that even when the flooding recedes, the disaster is not over yet.
“It will get worse because the weather reports are we’ll continue to have flooding. We have the interstate closed in areas between Baton Rouge and St. Tammany Parish. So things will continue to get worse. But I emphasize again, people forget that once these flood waters recede and go away, then the second half of this disaster starts to occur. And that’s when people find that their homes are structurally unsound, engineers will come in.”