We do not want people to let their guard down. That's when we have the greatest number of deaths.

Our recommendations have not changed since I've been here — we need to get people to evacuate from storm surge, ... If you're not in that evacuation zone, the safest place for you may be in your home.

The earliest we're going to see significant impact from the storm appears to be Friday afternoon, but people should not wait, ... It's time to act.

I implore people to understand that although this storm is not an immediate threat to any of the inland areas of the state, it is definitely a hazard for marine interests along the coast,

That's because we looked at what happened in the 1918 pandemic. That caused the greatest number of deaths ever recorded from an infectious disease in a single year, by far. More than the black plague, more than any other infectious disease,

You're in a phenomenon ... it's sort of like a hurricane, you're not going to stop it with what the (existing) resources are.