I'm here for the long haul. Homeland Security, FEMA, the Coast Guard, the Red Cross, the Department of Transportation, we're all looking at it as a team.

We'll be periodically visiting all those families and talk with them and try to understand what their permanent housing plans are going to be and how we can help them get there.

What Katrina and Rita have done for emergency managers and for individuals is just create a heightened awareness of how important it is to communicate, how important it is to plan.

The spirit of the community has returned. People are wanting and willing to help themselves and are happy to help their neighbors. One feature which I think needs to be acknowledged is the determination and the spirit of the people to recover.

You've really gotten off to a great start. There's a lot of self-sufficiency on the part of the folks over there who are, on their own initiative, taking up and starting the planning process, getting on with the rebuilding period. I think you're going to have a pretty swift and effective recovery over there in Texas.

Had Hurricane Katrina not come through here, the Rita storm would be really the event of the decade and the event that we're all talking about.