===========================================================================
President Bush Visits Iowa City, Iowa, Discusses Aid for Flooding
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary June 19, 2008

President Bush Visits Iowa City, Iowa, Discusses Aid for Flooding Iowa
City, Iowa

˙ /news/releases/2008/06/20080619-15.wm.v.html ˙˙Presidential Remarks
˙˙Audio


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

===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/06/20080619-15.html