I'm asking our citizens to please understand the seriousness of our situation, ... ... It is too dangerous to come home.

I'm asking all of you to do your very best to get as many people to safe ground as possible. It occurs to me that a lot of people went to bed last night thinking that hurricane was going to Florida, ... I got a report at 7 o'clock that there were about 700 people doing Little League ball in the New Orleans area.

Our local governments are recovering, but many are on the verge of financial collapse. I'm asking the federal government to help pay the regular-time salaries of these essential public employees during this emergency period,

This is a unique situation, and that's why we're asking for a unique response,

I know the pain Oliver is in, and I know the pain our citizens are in, ... We just have to keep on asking for patience and asking them to endure, even more than they have already endured. These people coming in have been in stress since Monday. It is Saturday. Our heart goes out to them.