**FEMA Director Allbaugh with Larry King and Dan Rather, CNN "Larry King
Live" (Transcript).**

**10/05/01**

LARRY KING: Dan Rather remains through the next segment, and joining us
is Joe Allbaugh, the director of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency. As I told you all before we went on, when we were down at ground
zero yesterday, everyone there \-- firemen, police, emergency workers
\-- all praising the work of FEMA.

And I want to set something straight, because last night we reported,
and Mayor Giuliani seemed to agree, that FEMA was leaving, pulling out
as of Saturday because there\'s no more rescue. What is the story?

JOE ALLBAUGH, DIRECTOR, FEMA: Well, that\'s only our last urban
search-and-rescue team. We\'ve had had 21 teams come through New York
City, five at the Pentagon. That mission is completed. We\'re now moving
into the recovery, full-time recovery stage, as you both know, and we
have other teams in the pipeline should they be needed by Frank
Carruthers or Tommy Von Essen. We\'ll bring them right back here.

But we represent over 18 agencies that are on the ground right now,
almost 2,500 federal employees assisting the city of New York rebound,
as we should, and we\'ll be here until the end.

KING: How long have you been on this job now?

ALLBAUGH: Nine months next week.

KING: No way you could have \-- now, Dan and I were discussing \-- and
I\'m sure you heard it \-- about being prepared for something like this.

ALLBAUGH: Nobody is prepared for this. I prayed it would never happen. I
feared that it would. I understand why God gave me big shoulders: We\'re
all being tested right now.

KING: Where were you that morning?

ALLBAUGH: I was in Big Sky, Montana. I was addressing our national
emergency managers association meeting, annual meeting, talking about
firefighters, who are always the first in line for budget cuts and the
last in line for recognition. That has to stop. Talking about terrorism
preparedness.

KING: And what happened? Who told you?

ALLBAUGH: I woke up.

KING: Oh, you were there.

ALLBAUGH: I was there and turned on CNN, actually saw the second plane
hit the tower.

KING: Live.

ALLBAUGH: I thought it was \-- I thought it was a movie clip. I thought
\-- I didn\'t know\...

RATHER: As we all did.

ALLBAUGH: \... and did a double-check, double-take like everyone else,
blinked, and reality started sinking in. Learned that it was second
plane, know immediately it was terrorism. And moved on to Bozeman that
morning, waited a couple of hours for a plane. Planes were going down
and we were trying to get a plane in. I was afraid they were going to
strap me into an F-16, which would be an odd fit, to get me back to
Washington. Finally, caught a KC-135 back to Washington, 4 1/2 hour
flight.

KING: Talked to the president.

ALLBAUGH: Went directly to the White House, spent the rest of the
evening with the president and vice president and many others, and spent
the next morning, Wednesday morning, with the president, and then that
afternoon flew to New York, Wednesday afternoon, with Senator Schumer
and Clinton.

KING: How well had your predecessor prepared you for this?

ALLBAUGH: I don\'t think anyone could prepare you for this. The agency
is prepared. James Lee Witt left the agency in good shape.

Unfortunately, it\'s now time to go the next step into the 21st century
for all federal agencies, quite frankly\...

(CROSSTALK)

\... and they need to be thinking about the unthinkable.

(CROSSTALK)

RATHER: Speaking of the next step, for families who have lost someone in
this calamity, what\'s the next step for them?

ALLBAUGH: Well, there are \-- many thanks for bringing that up. There
are many families who have not registered. Everyone needs to register,
whether you are in Northern Virginia or Pennsylvania or you have
relatives\...

KING: Register meaning\...

ALLBAUGH: Register, tele-registration. They need to call this number. I
want to \-- excuse me for reading it, but I want to be exact. It\'s
1-800-462-9029. This starts the flow of federal assistance.

And what I\'m worried about \-- Dan and I were talking about earlier \--
is that this is going to have such a long-term effect that crisis
counseling is going to be so important to all of these individuals,
terrorists victims, the families of victims, the individuals who worked
down at the site, whether it be at the Pentagon or at the World Trade
Center.

They may live in Queens or the Bronx. We need to be able to provide them
crisis-counseling.

KING: Who registers now? The wife? The\...

ALLBAUGH: Any relative.

KING: Any relative\...

ALLBAUGH: Close relative.

KING: \... of anybody missing?

ALLBAUGH: That\'s correct.

KING: 1-800-462-4029.

ALLBAUGH: 9029.

KING: 1-800-462-9029.

RATHER: And when they call that number, what happens, Joe?

ALLBAUGH: Well, we take down the necessary information. The most
important information is their name, address, phone number. We need to
be able to get in touch with those folks, to track those folks, to make
sure that they\'re coming in, taking advantage of all the programs that
are available.

I\'m deeply concerned about those folks who were working there, don\'t
know that there is assistance available to them, and they\'re looking
for agencies to help them. They need to get registered.

We have \-- Pier 94 here in New York City is a family center. That\'s
for those family members who have victims that are missing.

KING: Do you think there\'s a lot of people that haven\'t registered?

ALLBAUGH: I do. I do indeed.

I was down at a site today, our disaster assistance service center down
on Worth and Center street, and we\'re handling about 500 individuals a
day there. And many of those people who come through the door have not
registered yet.

It is so important to get registered so we can offer them the assistance
that they desperately need, particularly in the crisis counseling area.

KING: You\'ve been down to ground zero?

ALLBAUGH: I have\...

KING: You naturally.

ALLBAUGH: \... every day.

RATHER: And I do think, Larry, this one of those situations \-- and I\'d
be interested to know whether Joe agrees \-- television is great about
taking you there, but even that has its limits, that it\'s one of those
things, unless you\'ve been there, it\'s impossible to describe it.

KING: We\'ve got to take a break. Do you agree?

ALLBAUGH: I agree. You all do a great job with television and shooting
film and tape, but until you visit this site, you cannot grasp the
gravity of the situation.

KING: We salute you, Joe.

ALLBAUGH: Thank you, Larry.

KING: We thank you, Dan.

RATHER: Good seeing you, Joe.

ALLBAUGH: Take care.

KING: Thank you, Dan.

RATHER: Thanks, Larry. Take care of yourself.

KING: We\'ll call on both of them again a lot in the next, oh, I\'m
going to say years. Joe Allbaugh and Dan Rather, the chancellor of
Germany. In a moment, the chancellor of Germany. Here\'s more of those
tapes we were playing earlier. Don\'t go away.