I sat there facing the camera until the technical people began fiddling with the lights and moving around the room. Marc Thiessen gave me a nod and a thumbs-up, and Matt Scully said, "Good job, Mister President."
"Thank you. I just hope we have enough time to get people out of there. This is going to be bad enough without the networks broadcasting bodies in the streets and people screaming at refugee centers.", I told him.
"You really think it will be that bad?"
I nodded. "We'll know for sure tomorrow. By then the storm will have figured out where it is going to make landfall and what area gets destroyed. The problem isn't really the winds, it's the water. New Orleans is mostly under sea level, like Holland. If the levees go, the city washes out to sea."
"Shit!", he muttered.
"Exactly!"
"If that happens, they are going to be picking people up off the roofs of whatever is left standing with helicopters."
I nodded. "Probably every single one in the inventory, and it still won't be enough."
Marc looked thoughtful and commented, "You know, not every helicopter is owned by the government." I shrugged and looked at him curiously. Where was he going with this? "It's just ... one time I was at a cocktail party, and this friend of a friend said that one of the biggest air forces in the world was actually all the helicopters owned by the oil companies to service the oil and gas platforms out in the Gulf. Now, I am sure that right now they are hauling guys off those platforms, but what about after the storm? Maybe they could help in the rescue?"
I looked over at Matt, and he looked back, equally confused and curious. "Really?", he asked.
"It might be worth checking on."
"Okay.", I said. "Marc, you call who's ever in charge over at FEMA now that Mike Brown is heading down to Louisiana. Maybe they've already thought of this, but let's find out. The oil companies might not want to do it, but maybe they'll want to bank some good will for when they have an oil spill or something."
"Sounds like a plan.", he agreed, standing.
I sent the pair of them out, with orders to keep an eye on the weather in the Gulf, and plan on a few more speeches as needed. If it became as bad as I knew it would, I was going to have to make a 'fact finding' trip down there after the storm. I fully expected to find the fact that New Orleans had been well and truly trashed, along with everything else in the area. Afterwards I went upstairs and simply sat with Marilyn for the evening.
Saturday the 27th, I had a conference call with John McCain, Mike Brown, and Max Mayfield from the Hurricane Center. It wasn't a good prognosis. The storm had already been upgraded from Category One last night, and was now at Category Three, which is a whole lot more storm. It was a big storm, and was guaranteed to hit a stretch of coastline from the Florida Panhandle all the way west to Houston. It was still aimed dead center at New Orleans. John and Mike filled us in on the latest, and Mike told me he had heard from his people in D.C. about the helicopter idea.
The problem was that the helicopter support companies were under long term contracts to the oil companies and their support companies. It was more than a little fragmented, with hundreds of offshore rigs and dozens of refineries ashore, simply a gargantuan industry. I decided to cut the complaint off mid-stream. "Mike, let me make a phone call and see what I can do. Be prepared to follow up afterwards."
I hung up and told the switchboard to get me Lee Raymond, the Chairman of the Board of ExxonMobil, the biggest oil company in America. It always amused me to hear the awe in people's voices when they heard the operator say, 'Please hold for the President of the United States.' I was sure that today would be no different. It wasn't.
I had known Lee for a number of years, though I couldn't say we were friends, rather more like acquaintances. We had met a number of times, he was a Republican and very big on corporate citizenship. "Hello?"
"Lee, it's Carl Buckman. How are you doing, sir?"
"Just fine, Mister President. How can I help you?"
"Lee, I need your help. I know that you know just how bad this storm, Hurricane Katrina, will be. One of my people told me yesterday that the oil and gas industry has one of the largest fleets of helicopters in the world. What I am looking for is assistance after the storm passes through."
"Uh, yes, sir. The industry as a whole does have lots of helicopters, but I can assure you they are all busy right now. I can guarantee they are pulling people off the rigs as they shut down, and moving out of the path of the storm. It would be much too dangerous to be out on a rig in this kind of weather.", he replied.
"I'm sure it is. No, I am talking about afterwards. I am speaking to you not just as the head of ExxonMobil, but as the head of your industry. I know you'll be moving people back out to the rigs, to get them up and running again. I won't insult your intelligence and claim to know your business. Still, I know that there has to be some slack in your operations, some sort of surge capacity. You're too smart a guy not to do that, and you know everybody in your business better than anybody in Washington does. What I am asking is that after the storm, if you can free up some of that capacity to assist in rescue operations, to do so.", I said.
"Yes, sir, I understand what you are asking. I will see what I can do."
"Feel free to use my name. Call who you have to call in your company and elsewhere. Your nation needs your help, and that help will be remembered." That was the quid pro quo, of course. He was going to have a big marker to call in at some point in the future, and I was going to have to concede on whatever it was.
"Of course, Mister President. I'll get right on it."
"Thank you, Mister Raymond. After this is all over, we can meet here and you can tell me how you did the great job I know you'll be doing. Thank you sir." We said our good-byes and hung up. I smiled to myself. I knew that three things were going to happen. After the storm some of their helicopter capacity would be offered to the government, that some wonderfully heart warming commercials would be generated about how they were helping, and that before I was out of office Lee Raymond would be knocking on my door for something worth billions of dollars and I would give in.
I spoke to General Myers later in the morning, and I got a little testy with him. He was looking for permission to move some men and supplies from well outside the storm area into pre-positioning sites. I told him not to ask in the future, but to simply do it. We had money and manpower; we didn't have time! In that regard, we worked up a letter to every state governor, asking for assistance in the crisis. They were to assume that if there was a request for National Guard assistance from their state, even if they weren't in the storm zone and hadn't been affected, that the request was in my name and they would be looked to for immediate assistance. I did a little editing, and made sure we took out anything mandatory, and used lots of phrases like 'request', 'assist', 'support', and 'national emergency'. The letter was sent to every governor that day, hand delivered by the local ranking military leader. It was also leaked to the press.
Results were generally positive. Three governors of mid-western states promptly activated their National Guard units and ordered them to prepare for any and all assistance measures, and made sure to do this on television. Another governor declined however, stating through his press spokesman that state law prohibited that sort of action without there being an immediate need in his state. Legally that might have been true, politically it was a disaster! Within six hours that same spokesman was tap-dancing in front of the cameras and stating that what he really meant to say was that of course the Governor was going to help, but voluntarily, not because it was required. I got a good laugh out of that.