Remarks by the President to the Travel Pool

IOWA CITY, Iowa--(Business Wire)--
2:00 P.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT: Let me thank the Mayor, thank the Governor.
Congressman, thanks for flying down from Washington with us, and,
Senator Harkin, thanks for being here.

SENATOR HARKIN: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: You know, these are tough times for the people of
Iowa City and Cedar Rapids and a lot of other communities in Iowa.
Some of them are, you know, real tiny communities. And this --
obviously, as you can see here, they're still going through a recovery
phase. The Mayor was telling me that she had part of the city
evacuated and now some folks are able to come back in.

I brought a lot of federal officials with me because it's really
important that as the rebuilding phase begins, there's a coordinated
effort between the federal government and the state and the local
governments. And Michael Chertoff is going to be handling the
coordinating effort with the Governor. And the Governor will make sure
that the affected communities are represented, as well.

We passed a -- or the Congress is contemplating passing a
supplemental, and a chunk of that supplemental will be disaster relief
money. And I want to thank the members of Congress -- hoping to get
that done quickly.

SENATOR HARKIN: It will get done.

THE PRESIDENT: One of the things that happens in a disaster such
as this is that citizens from around the country want to know how they
can help. They see the picture of this kind of flooding on TV and they
know that people are hurting and they want to know how they can
participate in helping the rebuilding. Well, one way that the people
can do is they can go on their computers and dial up volunteer.org.*

And, you know, if you want to try to figure out how to send
something, you can -- there will be ways to -- ways to direct your
compassion. If you want to give money, there are organizations that
could use your contributions; organizations such as the Red Cross. And
I'm -- again, I'll repeat to you: volunteer.gov -- I think I might
have said "org"; I meant "gov."

And I really again want to congratulate the local folks here for
really showing great compassion and working hard and hugging people
and giving people hope. And, Governor, you've been out front. You and
your First Lady are working hard, and the Mayor has been very much
engaged in helping people deal with the initial response. And now we
all got to come together and help people deal with the rebuilding of
Iowa.

Anyway, thank you for your hospitality. I'm sorry we're going
through this. Tell people that oftentimes you get dealt a hand you
didn't expect to have to play, and the question is not whether you're
going to get dealt the hand; the question is how do you play it. And
I'm confident the people of Iowa will play it really well.

Anyway, thank you. (Applause.)

END 2:03 P.M. CDT

* website is www.volunteer.gov

White House Press Office
1-202-456-2580

Copyright Business Wire 2008