Housing provided by FEMA is meant to be temporary. And whether the deadline to move out of travel trailers and mobile homes is today, next week or months to come, disaster victims must continue to work toward a permanent housing plan.

It's not a case where Florida or Orlando has said they are a point for evacuees to flock to. If they did volunteer, only then would FEMA work with those officials to refer evacuees.

That is an incredibly fast response. The sheer volume of commodities we're moving around in South Florida in all those affected counties, we're doing it faster than we did last year in all those storms.

That's precisely why, when you read any disaster kit, it says you should have enough supplies for 72 hours.

As additional commodities arrive, they're being pushed out immediately. Nothing is sitting in staging areas.

Bills aren't blindly paid. This is something that obviously there is a process where we have the opportunity to check before dollars are issued.

With Katrina, you're talking about over half a million people who have been displaced.

When we talk about preparedness ... we ask people to put together preparedness kits to plan for 72 hours to be without water and food. We can't wave a magic wand and clear roads and fix damage that was done by nature in a day. We are very well prepared here in Florida. We have had commodities throughout the state that are moving into affected areas.

While we have not yet reviewed this particular bill, it is important to note that the initial decision on Individual Assistance for South Florida was based on the findings of Preliminary Disaster Assistance (PDA) teams jointly comprised of local, state, and federal officials who assessed areas identified by local emergency managers.

Grocery stores are open in all these areas. And I think people are losing sight of that.