Most people automatically believe that if there's a large flood then loggers and deforestation are responsible. In most cases it's not true.

I think the belief comes about because forests do help to reduce floods in small areas, and so people assume it must also apply to severe floods in large areas.

The simple explanation for large-scale flooding is that it rains a huge amount and that flooding is part of natural processes. There is a tendency to look for culprits when these natural events occur.

The hardest part is, it didn't have to be this way. If people had evacuated -- of course, where are they going to evacuate to? But other people did evacuate. Everybody that died here was needless. It's just the senselessness of it all.

It's unexpected revenue, because people are just doing what they were always doing. It's not like a whole new market opened up. There's no behavioral change. It's just more money.

In Mississippi some people didn't know we were there until we knocked on their door.