Joe Allbaugh, former FEMA Director, speaks about Hurricane Irene on CNBC

Joining us on the Squawk News line with more on the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, Joe Allbaugh. Thanks for joining us this morning.

Thank you, but I'll be the "first to admit I'm not the fan of chick flicks, either, so sort of shocking this weekend.

"Did we dodge a bullet? I've been looking at Irene all weekend. did we dodge a bullet? Irene was not as bad as expected. I feel bad for the people in Vermont, but certainly less than compared to New York City.

I think the city did dodge a bullet. It went to 2, downgraded to 1, hit shore, a lot of localized flooding, a lot of trees, downed power lines, those are things that we deal with every day, but in offer the big one, absolutely, this was not the big one. What I worry about, with all the week's run-up of the coverage by absolutely every network under the sun is this kind of petered out. What are we going to do and how about people react when the big one does show up? You're always walking a fine balance on that.

Should we not have -- should it have been different? Should the mayor of New York City not been as pushy as getting people out. If Chris Christie had not yelled at people to get off the beach? Was it justified?

No, I would have to commend Mayor Mike and all the governors of those affected states. They did exactly what they're supposed to do. I wasn't involved in Katrina, but only on the periphery. I remember Ray Nagin sitting on his can, not doing anything. We all remember what happened as a result of not doing anything. So they did exactly the right thing. you know, preparing for those bad storms, but this one just didn't measure up, according to the hype. I realize that 25% of America was covered during this storm, too.

But is that a bad reading of the forecasts? Think about that, and then you're right, the next time we get these kinds of readings, the next time we report this, the next time Mayor Bloomberg says this kind of thing, maybe people will be hanging out on the streets again.

That's exactly right. We remember the boy crying wolf, that story that we heard since we were kids. That's what I worry about. It is a fine line. I'm not second-guessing any of those leaders that made that decision. I think given the nature of this storm, where it came in a strong 3, there was not enough water to reheat itself and kick back up, went down to a 2, hit shore, and basically became a tropical storm. That's when we ought to recognize immediately it's a tropical storm, a lot of wind, a lot of rain, a lot of downed power lines, localized flooding, and some of the shots of reporters that I saw, talking about localized flooding, and then sticking their boot into a pool of water, to me that's not localized flooding. That's just continuing the hype. Stop calling it a hurricane when it's not a hurricane. I think that's fair.

Joe, we're 24 or 48 hours for most people without electricity as a result of this, and they'll be understanding and patient, so you won't get a lot of criticism. But if we get to Thursday, Friday or Saturday, these millions of people still don't have power, might the evaluation of what's happened here not be so positive?

Well, that's a possibility, but I have to tell you that it's -- it's not government entities that are repairing those power lines. These are for-profit entities, your major Con Eds, and PG & E's and North Carolina Power. They are perhaps the best prepared at repairing such lines. I don't think we'll get to the end of the week without restoring the bulk of the power, and you'll have very few criticisms. These people bring in trucks from all over.

I'll bet if you I'm an individual, in North Carolina and I don't have power, I'm not going to be trying to reach out to my utility company. I'm going to speak to my local politician to why am I now waiting five days for this for-profit entity to fix -- you know, to bring the electricity to my house. If you were waiting for the government, it might take a month.

I would agree if I happened to be in New York City, but the folks in North Carolina understands where their power comes from. There's not a lot that elected officials can do by citizens harping at them, get me more power, get me more power. The utilities will do the darnedest that they possibly can, because they part of that trained first-responder community.

Joe, thank you so much for joining us. appreciate you weighing in with your expertise.