FEMA’s Brock Long: ‘Right Now We’re Not Doing Recovery,’ Just ‘Search and Rescue’

CHUCK TODD: Joining me now is the director of FEMA, Brock Long. Mr. Long, welcome to Meet the Press.

FEMA ADMINISTRATOR BROCK LONG: Hey, good morning, how are you sir?

CHUCK TODD: I’m pretty good. Let me start with this cleanup effort and the fact - what Lester was just saying - and understandably that some of it is delayed or stalled because more is to come. What kind of extra efforts are you having to - of resources - are you having to marshall to deal with issues of flooding? Are you having more air support? Coast Guard coming in? What are the resources you’re having to start now?

FEMA ADMINISTRATOR BROCK LONG: So, first of all, I’d like to say that President Trump is extremely concerned about this. He has given me all the authorities to amass the resources from the federal government down through our state and local partners. And right now we have nearly 5,000 staff that we have coordinated across the federal government within the states of Texas and Louisiana, helping Governor Abbott and Chief Nim Kidd as well as the locals, um, respond. Right now, we’re not doing recovery. There’s no such thing as recovery right now. Right now we are deep into the life safety mission of helping people be rescued through swift water rescue, search and rescue and it’s my job to coordinate that, so specifically what I mean is is that, under the national response framework, we mission-assign the Coast Guard. We mission-assign DOD assets in support of our state and local efforts. And you’re seeing that take place right now.