Following a tour of tornado-damaged areas in Ringgold, U.S. Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano urged residents who suffered storm damage to register with FEMA. Napolitano spoke Sunday afternoon to reporters gathered at the Adult Learning Center at Benton Place. U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, left, U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, right, and GEMA Director Charley English, center, were among those attending the press conference.
Staff photo by John Rawlston/Chattanooga Times Free PressRINGGOLD, Ga. – After a morning driving around the destroyed homes and businesses of Ringgold on Sunday, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was struck by one thing above all else – the community’s resilience.
“This is a tough one, but this is a tough town and a tough area. People are going to come back,” Napolitano said at a media briefing. “Recovery is alive and well here, in Ringgold and in the whole surrounding area.”
Napolitano, who is scheduled to speak at the commencement of Emory University in Atlanta today, met with volunteers and victims of April’s tornados while touring downtown Ringgold and surrounding areas.
The cabinet member heads the department under which the Federal Emergency Managment Agency operates, and she stressed the organization isn’t leaving the area until everything is back in order.
“Our teams were in the field within hours, we are still in the field, we will remain in the field until we are confident that these communities are well on their way to recovery,” she said.