FEMA Press Briefing on Gustav TITLE: September 2, 2008 FEMA Press Conference TOPIC (if needed): FEMA News Briefing: Federal Response to Gustav – The Aftermath DATE: September 2, 2008 LENGTH: N/A PARTICIPANTS: David Paulison, FEMA Administrator Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary, Department of Interior Kevin Kolevar, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Major General Don T. Riley, Deputy Commanding General, USACE Sally Brice-O’Hara, Deputy Commandant for Operations, USCG Diana Roth-Smith, Executive Director, National Voluntary Organization Active in Disasters Joseph Becker, Senior Vice President of Disaster Service American Red Cross ABBREVIATIONS: [U/I] = Unintelligible [PH] = Phonetic Spelling Speaker Transcription David Paulison: Good afternoon. I’m sure all of y’all are aware that we’ve been working very hard with Gustav and the effort after the landfall. Our priorities right now are strictly lifesaving, making sure we got those efforts in place, getting resources in place, providing life sustaining supplies and equipment so we can move into the hardest hit areas particularly, Huma[PH], Therby Doroway[PH] and Morgan City. Hurricane Gustav is still a very dangerous storm. The winds have died down but there are still some gale force winds out there, a lot of rain as it moves in from Louisiana to Arkansas. We got tornados. Still a lot of flash flooding, particularly along the riverbeds, so we ask people to be very, very careful. We’re out there doing damage assessments. They’re ongoing in those particular areas. Allen[PH] parish has the damage, assessments are going on. There appears to be minor damage right now, isolated power outages, evacuations and curfews due remain in affect. Boroguard[PH] parish, we’ve completed the damage assessments. There’s minor damage there. A lot of tree damage but all the roads are open. The evac ward has been lifted there. The curfews remain and the shelters are closing there. Copishoe[PH] parish, our damage assessment is complete. The damage there is minor also. All the roads are open. Spotty power outages. Evac is lifted and curfew remains. And Cameron[PH] parish. The damage assessments are complete. A lot of tree damage also. The curfew does remain in effect but the power has been restored. New Orleans, I’m sure most of you are aware, most of the city has power, but part of it does not. At the rest of the state we have a 1.4 million people without power. The governor has asked the generators for gas stations and we’ve agreed to do that. We’re working with the Army Corps of Engineers to make sure that happens. We’ve got contract field people working with the hospitals to make sure that the hospitals that are generator power have a continuous amount of supply of fuel so we don’t have to transfer patients out of those hospitals if we don’t want to. Working or returning home, that’s an important issue. I know the people out there in the shelters and the people who self evacuated have asked to return home. What we’d ask you to do very carefully is to make sure that you don’t come back too soon. Wait for your parish to be announced that it’s safe to go back. What we don’t want you to do is to go back home and there’s no power and there’s no water. A lot of the roads are blocked and trees are damaged, so we don’t want people to get hurt. Traditionally in these types of storms we get more injuries after the storm than we do during the storm. We want people to be careful. There’s a lot of power lines down out there. A lot of the trees of the road and fuel, gas and food supplies may not quite be available if you do return home too soon. So please listen to your local officials. We have opened a National Family Registry and Locator System. If you have separated from your family you can either go to www.fema.gov and register yourself of you can call the toll free number for the family registry. That’s 1 800 588 9822. I got the number right this time, I got some sleep last night. And also the National Child Locator is open also. So make sure if you are separated from your family, get registered. And if your family members register also, we can put you together. We have a lot of people calling about donations and how they can help people. Americans are very generous people. And so what we’d like you to do is contact your local volunteer agency, either one of your choice, there are several out there that are working very hard. You got the Red Cross out here up on the stage today. The Salvation Army is out there working. The Southern Baptist Association. There are several organizations that you can donate to or volunteer time if you’d like to do that. We also have what we call an Aid Matrix Foundation that we use. And all the states are using it. You can go online and see what the needs are. And then if you have something to donate, whether you’re a private individual or a corporation, and so you can go to that Aid Matrix Foundation and you can get that through the FEMA website also. So along with Hurricane Gustav, we’re now dealing with Hannah. I just got off the Videoconference with The National Hurricane Center. Hannah is kind of stalled right now. They’re not sure exactly what it’s going to do. The predictions are that it will go up the east coast of Florida and then swing right and perhaps, perhaps go into either Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina area. We have to watch this one very closely because don’t know the intensity that it’s going to be. And we are not sure exactly where it’s going to make landfall. On top of that we have Ike out there in the mid Atlantic and then another one that just came off the coast of Africa. So it looks like a busy hurricane month this month. We have placed people in Florida, in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina to work with the states. To go over their plans to make sure they’re rock solid and make sure they have evacuation plans in place, their routes laid out, the shelters ready to go, who’s going to staff them. So we can do the same types of things that we did in Louisiana and Mississippi as far as having those evacuation plans in place and have the same type of response. I was asked earlier, several times, does FEMA have enough people to do this? The answer is yes. We are dealing with a major storm in the Gulf Coast area. But we’re ready to move in to the Atlantic should that hurricane come that way. So we’ll let other people come up here and I am honored to have Secretary Kempthorne with us. Secretary, I’ll ask you to make a few remarks right now. Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary, Department of Interior: Dave, thanks so much. Let me compliment Director Paulison and all those at FEMA as well as the individuals who are on this shared podium and the organizations which they represent. Life safety is the goal[PH]. That’s very clear. The President has made that very clear. This morning Secretary Bodmin[PH], Secretary Peters, Kevin and myself, we briefed the President. I’ve been asked to come and give you a similar overview of what we presented to the President with regard to the impact, the possible impact to energy. In the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. production of oil is approximately 25 percent. About 15 percent are natural gas. In the Gulf of Mexico we have 3,842 production platforms. Since Sunday night 100 percent of those gas – excuse me – of the oil production platforms have been what we call shut in. We have not been producing. That’s 1.3 million barrels per day. Ninety-five percent of the production platforms for natural gas have been shut in. That comes to 7 billion cubic feet. Now, I will tell you that the initial signs from over-flights is that there’s no visible signs of damage to these platforms. That is good news. But as the weather continues to improve as we hope, then we’ll continue the flights. The idea is that tomorrow we can begin to have helicopters that will begin taking personnel and putting them back on these production platforms so thatthey can make the onsite inspections to make sure that there absolutely has been no damage. Then they will make a determination and pressurize the pipes to make sure that the infrastructure is in place and that there’s been no damage. It will take approximately a week before you would see some of these major facilities that come back up. Within two weeks we estimate that we could be back to approaching 100 percent production. The reason that it takes that long are our concerns for safety and for the environment so that everything is done to make sure that this equipment has not been damaged and does not lead to any concerns for life safety or for the environment. I will also add that one of the things that we have determined, about 90 accuracy at this point, is that none of the rigs that we had seen from Katrina and Rita in the past were set adrift. Their anchors pulling across the floor of the ocean bed caused a great deal of disruption and problems with the infrastructure of those pipes. No rigs have been set adrift. Part of that is because of additional measures that have been taken since that. Again, we believe that there’s, at this point, little damage that has been caused. And within that two-week period we can see us back approaching to 100 percent production level. David Paulison: And we have a list of who’s next here. Kevin Kolevar. Kevin Kolevar: Good afternoon. I’m Kevin Kolevar, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. As you would expect some of my comments will mirror those of the Secretary’s. In the aftermath of Gustav, companies are now trying to conduct post storm assessments of their facilities. Their first priority is obviously for the safety and health of their employees. Baring any wind or rain damage or other power issues, companies will enter facilities to ensure the systems are both safe and operational before they begin the process of returning to normal operations. Those companies that completed orderly safe shut downs of facilities, for example, the refineries and chemical plants are currently assessing restart options, that is to the extent that they can get into these facilities. Companies will begin to issue restoration time schedules once these assessments are completed. I’m going to start first by talking about the status of the electric sector in the Louisiana area. Preliminary Entergy reports, this is the utility, are showing extensive damage to its transmission system in southeast Louisiana. There are 191 lines and 210 substations out of service. There also appears to be significant damage to the coastal transmission and distribution systems. Approximately 1.4 million customers are without power in Louisiana and the vast majority of these are within the Entergy system. A large portion of the Baton Rouge New Orleans corridor is isolated from the grid and it is running and an independent island fed by three fossil units. So to be clear, this area has service, but it is not connected to the rest of the transmissions system. Maintaining balance on this small island is difficult. And the possibility does exist that these units could trip at which point New Orleans would again lose power. Repair crews have as their highest priority the reestablishment of grid integrity before adding significant new load into the area. And by that I mean they are going to focus on reconnecting this island to the rest of the grid before they reconnect the customers. A final, important point. While the damage to the New Orleans Metropolitan area is not too bad, it is important that no one judge the overall impact to the system by what can be seen in the city. To do so would be to grossly underestimate the extent of damage to the system. Entergy officials believe that much of the area outside New Orleans will take weeks to recover and in the Baton Rouge distribution area the same is true. This is typically the case following a large hurricane. Turning to refineries, as I mentioned earlier petroleum companies are working as we speak to access their facilities and assess damage. I don’t have any new information at this time to pass along with respect to individual units. The same is true for gas processing facilities. For pipelines, the most significant product pipelines, the Colonial, Explorer and Plantation lines remain in operation. Colonial is operating at reduced rates. The crude oil pipelines, the cap line and the low cap remain shut down. Turning to the strategic petroleum reserve. The Department of Energy has received one formal request for petroleum from the strategic petroleum reserve. This is from Citgo’s Lake Charles Refinery. This is a small request, 250,000 barrels. This request is due principally, entirely actually, to the closure of the Kapatuchuch[PH] channel, this is a logistical problem that Citgo isn’t able to bring oil in by barge to this facility. Crude for refineries in the Lake Charles area would be supplied by DEO’s West Hackberry’s storage site. That facility was shut down for the evacuation and an re-entry team arrived on site a short time ago, I was told about 15 minutes ago that there is no damage to the site and they will be able to return it to operations. The Department of Energy has been reviewing the requests and will respond to Citgo as quickly as possible. The status of the other three facilities is as follows: Brian Mound remains operational. A re-entry team is currently at the Big Hill’s storage site. And the Chocktight[PH] site has no damage but is without power. As I mentioned earlier the assessment phase has really just begun. We will continue to gather information on the status of the energy sector, certainly with our partners and providing it to FEMA on a timely basis. And for more information the public is invited to go to the DOE website, www.energy.gov to review the department’s regularly updated situation reports. Thank you. David Paulison: And next is Major General Riley from the Corps. Of Engineers. Major General Don T. Riley: Yes, good afternoon. If I could just refer to the map to my right and let you take a look at it as I speak, I’ll give you a few ideas of some of the assessment of what happened yesterday and what was found today. What you see before you is the New Orleans metropolitan area and on the West Bank in Jefferson parish there was no flooding found. In Placquemines parish down south you can see in that circle there was a non-Federal levee that was overtopped. About 200 homes were affected, but they determined, the parish president determined that is minor flooding overall. On the northern part in the yellow circle you see three of the outfall canals. Two of those, we closed the gates on those canals to close them off from the lake and we used all of our temporary pumps to pump out the city water that was being pumped into those canals from rainfall. If we can go to the second map, the second two maps talk a little bit about navigation along the Mississippi River as well as the Gulf inter-coastal waterway. You can see and this first map shows New Orleans and to the west all the red stars are along the Gulf inter-coastal waterway which we have reconnaissance vessels out right now that are surveying the navigation. So in conjunction with the Coast Guard they will reopen the channels when they determine it’s clear. Similarly the Mississippi River up to Baton Rouge surveying that till that is clear. Further to the south you see Port Fushon[PH] and Homa[PH] which was pretty much in the eye of the hurricane as it flowed through yesterday. There was a good deal of wind damage down there some flooding and then further to the west of Port Fushon. And then on the next slide you’ll see, on the next map you’ll see Morgan City also just to the southwest of New Orleans,it had some damage as well in flooding. And then even further to the west you’ll see the Lake Charles area where the hurricane went all the way over there to the Jefferson Davis parish and St. Mary’s near Morgan City that sustained significant wind damage. And then, of course, Baton Rouge as was reported earlier took significant wind damage as well. And that’s why they have such a dramatic power loss. One of our responsibilities in the Corps besides flood control and navigation was also working for FEMA in providing temporary power are priorities to hospitals and then to waste water treatment plants and water treatment plants so we get the water back to people, running water and then make sure they can move their sewage out. As we know public safety is number one. So again it’s hospitals, water and waste water treatment plants. And then we also provide temporary roofing. We estimate about 25,000 homes that have damaged roofs. So we’ll put blue tarps on. You’ll see those in the coming days. We need though for the citizens, the owners of those homes to provide us a right of entry. And then we’ll move on and replace those roofs. For comparison on both Katrina and Rita in all of the states, it was about almost 200,000 roofs. This is about 25,000 that we estimate. And debris removal, we’ll also have the operations working for FEMA to remove debris. We estimate about 10 million cubic yards of debris in Katrina and Rita and all the states. That was about 120 million cubic yards total. So we see this significantly less, but nonetheless still a major challenge because we’ll move our contractors in there and we’ll move the debris on the Federal rights of way. And as you people move back in you get more debris that’s placed out on the streets. Thank you very much. David Paulison: Admiral Brice-O’Hara. Sally Brice-O’Hara: Thank you. Good afternoon. As soon as it was safe for our pre-positioned assets to move in last evening and today we’ve been conducting aerial over-flights to ensure we understand fully the extent of any damages. First and foremost our concern has been public safety and I’m happy to report that mariners and citizens evacuated or took refuge in safe havens for our Coast Guard response to any type of search of rescue has been very light. Only three cases. One of those has been resolved, two we continue to work. Our next priority has been to understand any environmental impact. Had there been any oil or hazardous chemical spills? And we’ve had 19 reports into the National Response Center. We are investigating those and as soon as it is appropriate weather wise and access wise, contractors will be in to address those all small quantities, nothing major to report in that area. Our next focus is understanding the impact to the waterways. What’s happened with the channels that aids the navigation that mark the channels for safe navigation? Also understanding what obstructions there might be, whether it’s something that we see on the surface or something that’s under the surface. We want to make sure that we get that cleared before we open the shipping channels to any traffic inbound or outbound. We have key partners who are working with us. The Army Corps of Engineers, NOAH and the Gulf Inter-Coastal Canal Association have been key partners in conducting surveys of those waterways. That work is ongoing. Additionally we’re going to be in very close contact with industry and other private stakeholders so that we know what the demands are and they will have a voice with us in prioritizing what vessels get into port as those ports begin to open. Very strong teamwork. We’re supporting the interagency. We’ve responded to a number of mission assignments from FEMA. We have approximately 3,000 of the Coast Guard’s men and women in thearea responding and recovering from this storm. Those include our active duty reserves who have been called up on the authority of the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, our auxiliary volunteers and our civilian employees. We’ve brought into the area 30 aircraft, 120 rescue boats and 22 cutters as well as a number of shore response teams who look at a number of different areas of need and assessment. And all of that is factored in to how we move forward to make sure everybody’s safe. To make sure the marine environment is safe. And to move commerce along. At the same time we’re keeping a careful eye on the developing storms, Ike in particular. A little bit early to predict its course but we are watching that as we’re watching Hannah and we will be ready dependent upon the course that those storms take. It’s been a team effort and I will be happy to answer any questions at the conclusion. David Paulison: And Diana Roth-Smith, The Executive Director of The National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters. Diane Roth-Smith: Thank you. Good afternoon. Non-profits, faith-based and community based organizations, particularly those that are members of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster are the backbone of any community’s relief and recovery efforts. These organizations bring more than volunteers. They bring professionalism, resources, skilled labor and a cultural understanding of the communities within which they work. Family assistance and community recovery continue long after the media attention phase and support by these organizations last from weeks to years. In order to most effectively support their efforts, financial contributions to the disaster relief organization that you already know and trust is best. Cash donations help to avoid the labor and expense of packing, transporting and distributing donated goods. And relief agencies can use cash to meet survivor’s specific needs more quickly. Cash donations also help stimulate the local economy. Voluntary organizations also use skilled volunteers through all phases of disaster. Connecting in your local community and affiliating to a disaster relief agency can get you the training needed for deployment in the months to come when help is still needed. You can also be equipped to help your neighbors should disaster strike you. For a detailed listing of National VOAD members and those providing direct services please visit our website www.nvoad.org. Thank you. David Paulison: Joe Becker, Senior Vice President of Operations for the American Red Cross. Joe Becker: Good afternoon. And for the folks who have been through so much in the Gulf over the last days … yet have so many days ahead of them that are going to be so tough, I think we want to look at one aspect of this relief effort that has gone very well and that’s the evacuation. Not only did state, local and federal government in our partners here in FEMA orchestrate an amazing movement of people, but perhaps even the better story is all the people who recognize the need to evacuate, get out of harm’s way, they left. And that was a great success story. The focus of the Red Cross these days is on two things. We’re still in the very early days of the disaster and life safety and life sustaining is so important. We’re focused on the people who evacuated and who still can’t get home. And that’s a frustrating place to be, as Administrator Paulison said. And so we’re there to care for them where they would be. Secondly we’re focused on reentry. We’re serving in communities where people can go home. FEMA, state and local governments have a lot of coordination and folks working very hard to make sure that when the time is right, people are able to enter into their communities. We stand ready with volunteers and supplies to go in when it’s right. If you look at the evacuation phase, probably the best evidence of what a great job the American citizens did in the Gulf is to look at how many people were in shelters and safe places. The first night of this storm the American Red Cross had about 45,000 people in our shelters. The first night of Katrina we had about 30,000 people sheltered. Last night our shelter population grew from 45,000 to almost 60,000 people. That’s about 20,000 more than the second night of Katrina. That’s a real sign that people understood the importance to leave and they did. We’re here for those people as long as they need a place to stay. We’re sheltering in ten states right now. It’s still a very fluid situation. Some shelters are opening but other shelters are closing because people are able to return home. We’re here and we’re going to be with those folks for a long time. A concern we have right now is the availability of sheltered buildings. Local government did a great job of opening schools and civic buildings for the Red Cross and other partners to use as shelters to just a place to be home for people far, far away. And they welcomed them into their communities, but at this point there’s a need for those buildings back. Schools want to open. There’s others uses for the buildings. And we’re in a bit of a tough spot finding places for these people to stay. It’s a tough problem and local government, our FEMA partners and other organizations are working very hard on this. And we’re counting on the good will of our leaders in local communities to welcome people and to continue that service until they’ve got a place they can live other than a high school gym or a civic building. The next days we’re going to be focused on feeding, sheltering, distributing supplies where people are. Health services, minor first aid, things that people need in terms of their minor medical care and mental health. And we want to be very big and very aggressive in reaching out to people with our mental health service and with that of a lot of our partners. This is a place in the country that knows what a horrible experience a hurricane can be and we’ve done it again. And we want to be there for the emotional support that people need. Sometimes it’s not the meal and the cot and the blanket, sometimes it’s the shoulder to cry on. In these early days we will not be providing financial assistance. And our decisions about that assistance and when to provide that are going to be made in close coordination with our federal partners, particularly our folks with Administrator Paulison and his team. Today we’re meeting their media emergency needs for shelter, food, supplies, life saving, life sustaining things that people need. If you need help today please go to a shelter. Go to a Red Cross Shelter and we will welcome you with a meal, with a place to sleep, with a volunteer that cares about you. If you need help we’re there for you. To the people in the affected area who fled and who are far from home and are very frustrated right now. I need to please echo a comment that Administrator Paulison made earlier; please don’t return home until you’re told that it’s safe for your community to have people enter. Please stay where you are. Driving back home and then not being able to get in, not having a place to stay, not having anyone to take care for you in that community, that’s not the right answer. Please stay where you are. And when you’re toldit’s safe to go home, then please come on back. And we’ll be there to welcome you along with all the other people who can’t wait to get home. Thank you very much. Unidentified Male: We’ll take questions around the room first. I ask that you raise your hand and when called upon if you could tell us your name and your organization, that will be helpful. Questions? Rick Jensen[PH]: Rick Jensen from Fox Business. Director Paulison, can you talk a little bit about the differences with public assistance this time around and those changes made to the Stafford Act and what folks can expect this time around? Maybe a little bit behind the changes and the difference between ’05 and today. David Paulison: Well, the Stafford Act hasn’t changed. What we’ve done is try to get rid of some of the bureaucracy that was built in FEMA over the last 30 years to make things much more smoother. I think if you saw a difference in what happened in Katrina and what happened now, it’s the communication and the organization and the partnerships that went on. I think all of you saw that very clearly. What you see up on the stage is just a small microcosm of the people that are working together side-by-side to make sure that this works much more smoothly. What I saw in the aftermath of Katrina was a lot of stove piping, not a lot of networking, not sharing of information. And it wasn’t on purpose, it’s just the way, the system wasn’t built to do that. So we started putting that together. Again, our Videoconferences every day, making sure that everyone is sharing information. I think yesterday I think we had seven or eight different Videoconferences that we called just to deal with issues to make sure that things are going to work smoothly. So that is a big difference. If you’re working out of a unified command, out of a joint field office has made a huge difference. And we keep focusing on FEMA, but the breakdown was throughout the entire emergency management system. And what I’ve seen over the last two and a half years is not just Louisiana, and I have to tell you how proud I am of that state, how far they’ve come in just three short years. The organization is there. The fact that they work very hard on evacuation plans. The fact that they have pre-positioned buses, ambulances – all the things that they knew they were going to need, they had their rafts laid out, I know I said this yesterday, but it bears repeating, the fact that the state did an outstanding job and is still doing an outstanding job. So with a state like that it’s easy for us to plug into that system and we’re seeing that throughout the rest of the country. We saw it up in Iowa, we’ve seen it in California, everywhere we’ve had disaster this year, these changes in the emergency management system has come very rapidly in the last two and a half years. So I think that’s the big difference if I had to point to a particular type of thing. Rick Jensen(?): When it comes to the public assistance portion after to fix schools and museums, there are different requirements this time around and what are those differences? David Paulison: The difference is we’re going to be much more quickly. We’ve already have literally thousands of people. We have teams standing by and ready to move in to the states as soon as the declaration is declared. Today I signed off on the category eight piece of it which is debris removal. So we’ll give the money to states to help them get rid of the debris. They’re now submitting their request to me for the major disaster declaration, remember they had an emergency, now they have a major disaster declaration. They’ll submit those to us, we’ll evaluate that and that will open up the doors for the individual assistance piece which requires people to register and we will send people out to inspect their homes. Those people are already there. They’re already in the state waiting to go even though there’s not a declaration yet. And then a public assistance piece so that anything that the public owns, where there’s bridges or roads or courthouses or fire stations, anything like that that was damaged, we can help repair also. Unidentified Male: Next question? Carol Craty(?): Carol Craty with CNN. Looking ahead to Hannah, what can you tell us about the amount of material, meals, water you have ready to go. Where it is. And obviously you don’t know what state it’s going to hit yet, but what logistical issues do you think you face on that side of the coast? David Paulison: Well, we have a huge logistical center in Atlanta, which is one of the biggest that we have. We also have them staged up the Atlantic coast. We have a joint in Florida and in Orlando. We have a lot of supplies we pre-positioned, but we’re not depending just on FEMA for those type of supplies. We partner with the Corps of Engineers. We have contracts with private companies. We learned very clearly in Katrina that we can not depend just on one particular piece to provide the supplies. So we’re not going to – we call it third party logistics. We’re going to do a piece, we contract the people at the Corps of Engineers, the Defensive Logistics Agency and private companies out there. Just last year we used Wal-Mart to deliver water to a particular town out west where they were closer and they used their trucks and their warehouses and their people and it made much more sense than us trying to ship water across the country. So we’re much more flexible, much more open on how we’re going to provide that. I think all of you know we brought in an Executive Director from UPS who was embedded here for a year in our logistics system to help us adapt more of those private sector practices instead of the traditional one that FEMA had that obviously didn’t work during Katrina. Jean Chumnick(?): Jean Chumnick from Platt(?). I’m wondering … David Paulison: There are other people up here by the way. (Laughs) Jean Chumnick: Oh, I’m sorry. Yeah, this is probably for other people as well. By the end of Gustav, all told, how much in terms of oil and natural gas do you think will be lost? And are you anticipating tapping for oil again pretty much as one request? Or are there going to be more? David Paulison(?): I’ll handle this one phase and then Kevin can talk about the other. How much do we think will be lost, we don’t believe any will be lost. During Katrina and Rita not only was there absolutely no loss of life with regard to all of the employees that had to be evacuated from those oil and gas platforms, but there was no major loss of oil. And so it is simply a matter that we are currently not producing. With regard to sprow[PH], I would just say that we had a conversation today. The President had questions about that. As you know there’s been requests for something that the Department of Energy will evaluate so that you’ll find that you’ll have the needs met but, Kevin, you might have sort of … Jean Chumnick: What is the loss of production? What is the loss of … Kevin Kolevar(?): On a daily basis for the oil, 1.3 million barrels normally is produced in a 24 hour period in the Gulf. For natural gas it is 7.4 billion cubic feet. So because we’re at 100 percent shut in for oil, that’s the number for the gas, or 95 percent shut in, so it’s about 7 billion. Jean Chumnick: And this is per week? Kevin Kolevar: That’s per day. Jean Chumnick: I know, but you’re anticipating it being 100 percent shut off per week. Is that correct? Kevin Kolevar: Once they do the evaluations tomorrow and once they have personnel that are on the platforms and ensuring that there is safety and that they can meet all the environmental standards they’ll begin the ramp up. We really anticipate that it will be approximately a week that you would begin to see those major platforms back in production. Probably two weeks before we’re back to the 100 percent level. Unidentified Male: Let’s take a question from the phone. Operator, do we have a question? Operator: Yes. At this time if you would like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing star then one on your touch-tone phone. And the first question we have comes from Jeff Blitz from Bloomberg News. Jeff Blitz: I’m sorry. Director Paulison, I wanted to ask you about the temporary housing situation. First, when is the earliest that you would expect that people will be coming back and what regions or communities would come back first? And then also since you have a new temporary housing policy of not using trailers and emphasizing apartments. How does that work? Do you lease space from apartment buildings? Could you explain that a little? David Paulison: Sure. Right now we’re working with the governor and with the parishes and the mayors to determine which are the safest places for people to come back. We don’t want to encourage people to return to their homes until they have power, they have water, the sewer systems are working and the debris is cleared off the roads and it’s a safe place to live. So that’s going to probably take a couple of days before we see people really start moving back into the area and into their homes. The second piece of the answer is yes, yes and yes. We look at all options. We have a housing plan for ’08. We have a housing strategy that we’re following. That involves using a lot of different things. That involves when you put people initially in hotels and motels, and finding apartments. We had mobile homes, but don’t forget we put $400 million dollars in an alternative housing project. We built Katrina cottages, we built Mississippi cottages and those are options that we can use to bring people back in also. I do not want to use travel trailers. For me the lesson that I saw, the lesson that we learned, they’re not nice places to live. They’re too small. Particularly when we find that people may very well be in those for a very long period of time. So we have a lot of different other options that we will use without using travel trailers. I don’t think it’s going to hurt us, it will force us to open the doors and look at other options that are obviously already out there. Jeff Blitz: A follow up, how does it work in terms of the apartments? Are these pre-existing arrangements you have with the landlord? How does that work? David Paulison: Yes. We have a couple of different things. One, we can lease directly with the landlord. We can get people rental assistance which is what we normally try to do if we can find a place that rents and sells. We have a company that we use, like a reality company, it’s called CLC. They go out and lease with the landlord and we reimburse them for that. So there’s several options there to do that. And also we have the authority under the post-Katrina emergency format to actually rehab existing buildings that may have been damaged by the storm. We are doing that pilot project now in Iowa where we found a building, a low income housing project that was not damaged by the storm, but needed some rehab to move people in. Something not too bad, we went in and replaced the carpet, painted the walls, put new fixtures and appliances in there. And when that project is done we’ll move people in there that were displaced by that flood. So we’ll probably be looking for buildings around the Gulf Coast to do that same type of thing. Unidentified Male: Operator, can we have the next question? Operator: Yes, sir. The next question comes from Darryl Hughes from Dow Jones Newswire.; Darryl Hughes: [I/U] Operator: Please go ahead, Mr. Hughes. Darryl Hughes: [I/U] Unidentified Male: Operator, we can’t hear that question. It’s either the system or can we move on to the next? Operator: [I/U] Unidentified Male: Operator? Are you there? Operator: Okay, yes. The next question comes from Gary Fields from The Wall Street Journal. Gary Fields: Yes, hi. You may have answered this question already but I’d like to go back to New Orleans and in terms of the evacuations that have been lifted. Is New Orleans one of those? Will people be allowed to return to New Orleans any time in the near future? Today? Tomorrow? And specifically when if not today. Also is there a damage assessment of the areas you’ve been flying over monitor it. And also if you can repeat the situation again with Citgo. David Paulison: Well, that’s three questions, but that’s okay. (Laughs) Gary Fields: Oh. I’m sorry about that. David Paulison: The first question was that call would be for moving back into New Orleans was made by Mayor Nagin in New Orleans. As far as I know, as of an hour ago, he has not made that call to repopulate that. He wants to make sure that they have a stable power system in the city. As you’ve heard earlier it’s kind of isolated from the grid. So we want to make sure that that’s stable. He will make that call and when he does he will let us know and we’ll start moving people back in. We already have the buses, the trains and the aircraft waiting to move people back in when that call is made. We have started doing damage assessments, but we do not have any type of dollar figure yet. That will be tough to get until we really get out there and find out what the individual assistance piece is, if and when the evacuation is ordered by the president and the public assistance piece are jointly the most expensive and we’ll see what kind of damage is out there with that. And the third piece belongs to somebody else. Kevin Kolevar: A short time ago Citgo requested the release of oil from the sprow of the Department of Energy for their Lake Charles refinery. It’s a pretty small release, about 250,000 barrels. That refinery is located at the north end of Lake Charles. The entry way to the lake of Capachue[PH]’s ship channel was closed because the storm went right over that portion of the state. And baring any damage or blockage of the Capachue, that would reopen so it looks like this is a request based on a short term logistical challenge. The department receives these whenever we see barges that make break down in the Capachue Ship Channel and the like. And so we are considering that. We’ll respond as quickly as possible to Citgo. Unidentified Male: We have time for one last telephone call. Operator: Thank you. And that question comes from Mary Marr[PH] of the Christian Emergency Network. Mary Marr: This is for Chief Paulison. As faith-based donations are submitted through the Aid Matrix online system, could you verify the ability for donors to designate those donations to a specific faith-based relief organization of their choice? And then secondly can you verify via the online system that the donations are actually reaching those designated faith-based agencies to the specific donor? David Paulison: I believe that is correct, you can do that. But if you have a donation to a specific charity I would recommend going right to them. But the Aid Matrix I think will allow you to do that. And I’ll follow up to make sure that data is accurate. And I see no reason why that wouldn’t happen, if it was given to a specific charity or a function. Mary Marr: Is there a policy online somewhere, Chief Paulison, that we can refer to for our media outlets? David Paulison: It think it is online, the policy of how that works. We’re using this across the country now and all the states are using it. It’s a very good system and it really helps us get the right type of supplies and it gets them to where they’re needed. Mary Marr: Thank you. Unidentified Male: One last question in the room. And this is the last question. Thank you. Lisa Chen: Lisa Chen, ABC News. We’ve gotten some reports that there are people that are going back. Like rush hour traffic right now going back towards Louisiana. To the extent that some people will or are concerned to go back to check their homes maybe in places where there’s power. What is something that the federal government is going to do maybe to assist the states in this? David Paulison: Well, what we will do is work to make sure that there is supplies and water and those types of things down there. That’s why we’re encouraging people not to come back. And if they do come back, you know, bring your car full of groceries because the stores are not open yet. Now Wal-Mart I heard the mayor was saying that there were quite a few Wal-Mart stores who are bringing in generators to get their stores up and running, but I don’t know if that has happened yet. We would really ask people not to come back until they’re told that that area is safe to come back and they could sustain themselves. What you don’t want to do is to come back in and come back to your home and then be a burden on the community because there’s not enough supplies to go around. (END OF AUDIO FILE)