Quotes by Ivor van Heerden

“When it comes to a storm like this, the pumps are mission impossible. Number one, they arent safe for the operators and the second thing is that you need very powerful systems with a very good electrical supply, but the more robust [a storm] is, the harder it is to operate [a pump]. As soon as you start that pump, every bit of trash that gets into the canal gets sucked into the pump. And as soon as buildings start coming apart, the level of debris shoots up dramatically.”

“My concern was that the focus was not on protecting Louisiana.”

“We need to recognize we may be about to experience our equivalent of the Asian tsunami, in terms of the damage and the numbers of people that can be killed.”

“We would really encourage people not to come back [to New Orleans] for at least a week.”

“Its going to be days before they get all that water out.”

“Go home and identify all the chemicals in your house. Its a very long list.”

“For people to feel confident about coming back again, theyre going to have to rebuild the levee system.”

“They should have been monitoring this and informed people all the way to the top, then they should have warned people.”

“If we dont undertake the levee reconstruction and coastal restoration, were just leaving New Orleans more vulnerable than it was before.”

“He tried the best that he could, under the circumstances.”