On his tour of hurricane-damaged areas of the state, Gov. Dannel Malloy stopped this afternoon in his old neighborhood of Shippan Ave. in Stamford.
He was met by a group of print, television and radio reporters.
Malloy speaks with retiring U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, also of Stamford, on Shippan Avenue.
Asked about the performance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the just-concluded Hurricane Sandy versus after last year’s Tropical Storm Irene and October nor’easter, Malloy said, “Listen, in the last hour I’ve just completed two phone calls with the President of the United States.”
One of those was one-on-one, the second with other governors from impacted states.
“FEMA is far more responsive than they have been in any event that I have been involved before with,” Malloy said.
He also said governors from non-impacted states have been reaching out offering aid.
“There’s a lot of coordinated effort going on here and it’s pretty darn impressive and it’s clearly being lead by the President who keeps saying, ‘We’ve got to cut through red tape, cut through red tape, cut through red tape,'” Malloy said.
Asked if he was just praising President Barack Obama, his fellow Democrat, because the election is next Tuesday, Malloy said, “No. I was pretty critical, as you well know, (last year), and if this stuff slows down I’ll be pretty darn critical of FEMA if they pull any of the stuff they pulled last year.”