Quotes by John Scales

“It was like a ghost town,”

“It looked to me like the world had ended. One second, it was a bustling city. The next second, people vanished. It just looked like, all of a sudden, everybody was gone.”

“Its a large task, but Im very excited by the challenge,”

“Away from that part of town, we could drive on any side of the street that we wanted, ... It was quiet, too quiet.”

“We could only get to about 40 percent of the city, ... The remainder is still under water.”

“I have a couple of lists that I can refer to throughout the day, but I dont have the official FAT book yet. Yes, it really is called the FAT (Federal Acronym and Terms) book. And no, you cant speak a sentence around here without using an acronym,”

“Roxie (the neighbor) greeted me at her front door holding a hurricane baby, ... It turns out that Roxie ... is housing five adults, a teenager, two infants (preemie twin boys born five days before the hurricane and weighing 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 pounds), two dogs, two cats and an iguana -- all evacuees of New Orleans. This is in addition to her own family.”

“They are definitely getting more organized,”

“The long-term recovery is going to be very long, with the amount of devastation,”