PHILLIPS: Dan, we are going to take -- we are going straight to the governor. We will be right back, Dan.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), MASSACHUSETTS: ... people are being evacuated right now.

Actually, in Lawrence, we also have got an enormous evacuation under way right now. There continues to be a high level of water. And -- and people are having to be moved out of their homes.

I'm very encouraged, as I have looked at the kind of response you have seen here from the mayor of Methuen and the entire Methuen staff. You see a city that has activated all of their response capability, put in place a plan that has called for action, that got people out of homes, got people out of harm's way, no personal injuries, no fatalities, of course.

And we're really pleased with the kind of work that we have seen carried out here by the folks in Methuen, what a remarkable team. And we're all watching and congratulating them on the work they have done.

We also had the occasion just to be over at the shelter at the high school. And there are probably, I don't know, 75 or so people there, everyone filled with praise for the kind of work that's been done by the Red Cross and by the local agencies here in the city to make sure that everybody is being cared for.

So, I want to say thanks to the team. Appreciate the work that's gone on. Appreciate the fact that our dams are holding up. This one, obviously given the flow of water going over the top of it, gave everybody a -- a bit of a startle. And we are all a little nervous, but the dam has held up, as predicted.

And, fortunately, we are -- we're going to be able to see a reduction of pressure on this structure, as well as others throughout the commonwealth.

With that, we're happy to take any questions you may have.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... on Sunday, you said that the dams close to the impacted area had had corrective action. Does that apply to this dam?

ROMNEY: All of the high-hazard dams were inspected following the last flooding that we had about a year ago.

The team that was led by the Department of Conservation and Recreation inspected those dams and, in some cases, rebuilt them. So, the Taunton dam, which was a problem before, has been reconstructed. This was not deemed a high-hazard dam, meaning having impact on personal life.

It is, however, regularly inspected. FERC is the agency that inspects here. And this is a dam which was deemed to be structurally sound and has been proven such.

QUESTION: Well, if it's structurally sound, why the concern? Why all the...

(CROSSTALK)

ROMNEY: Well, any time you see water of the level we have got, a foot of water falling from the sky, that's a lot more than I think dams were built to -- anticipating.

And here the city took some really aggressive action, which was to say, let's shore up around the dam and put in sandbags to make sure that water doesn't go around it and erode the foundation. And that kind of action, combined with the work of our DCR people, has led to a setting where -- where we're quite confident the dams are going to do just fine.

QUESTION: Governor, the senators have sent you a letter today urging you to do a declaration or seek a declaration immediately. Yesterday, you talked about delaying a week. Any more thought on that or response...

(CROSSTALK)

ROMNEY: Well...

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

ROMNEY: You know, our team is fully aware of the process for establishing federal support and getting a federal declaration of disaster.

This is not something that's new to us. We have done it before. We will do it again. And the answer is that there's a normal process that we follow. MEMA is going through that process. It begins with an evaluation of economic damage. And we have federal assessors as well come in and take a look at the damage, and then we make the assessment.

There's no particular reason for rushing out and calling for a federal disaster at this stage. We will do that when we have got our numbers ready and our application is done properly.

In the past, we have -- we have erred by moving too quickly, before we had our -- our numbers all lined up. We want to make sure we get it done properly, so that we can qualify for every single federal dollar.

But no one needs to tell us in the state that we -- that we qualify for federal dollars. We know we do. We're going to get every dollar that we are entitled to.

And here comes the sun. That is if to -- as if to prove that we're on the right track.

QUESTION: Governor (OFF-MIKE) have not been assessed (OFF-MIKE)

ROMNEY: Well, there's -- we...

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

ROMNEY: Well, what we can tell you is that the dams that known as high-hazard dams -- we have thousands of dams in the commonwealth.

What is the total?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over 3,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little over (INAUDIBLE) 3,000.

ROMNEY: Over 3,000 dams. Many of them are very, very small dams. And they have no particular risk associated with them for human life or for property damage. And not all of those are inspected on a regular basis, because they don't need to be.

There has, however -- since the last crisis, there's been an effort to inspect all of the high-hazard dams. And they have been inspected. And there's also been $10 million set aside to reconstruct those that needed reconstruction.

We're now in the second year of that program. And we have reconstructed some dams that posed a danger to individuals. So, that's been done. There's also regulation been put in place for private owners. And what you have here is a private dam. This is not owned by the city or by the state. Private owners are responsible for securing inspections and for taking maintenance efforts, or being subject to serious fines.

And that's something which the private owners have done. In the case of this dam, it is inspected on a regular timetable. And it met, after its last inspection, with a -- with a seal of approval from the inspectors.

QUESTION: Governor, do you think, looking ahead, that there's any need for any greater federal...

PHILLIPS: We are listening to the Governor Mitch (sic) Romney there of Massachusetts, holding his first news conference since the rain devastated parts of his state.