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Bush: Help Coming for Desperate Situation

Posted on: Thursday, 1 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Thursday that thousands more victims of Hurricane Katrina still need to be rescued and acknowledged the frustration of people who need food, water and shelter and are desperate for the federal government's massive relief effort to kick into high gear.

"I fully understand people wanting things to have happened yesterday," Bush said in a live interview in the Roosevelt Room of the White House with ABC's "Good Morning America" program. "I understand the anxiety of people on the ground. ... So there is frustration. But I want people to know there's a lot of help coming."

Bush urged a crackdown on looting and crime that has spread throughout New Orleans.

"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this - whether it be looting, or price gouging at the gasoline pump, or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud," Bush said. "And I've made that clear to our attorney general. The citizens ought to be working together."

Bush, who spoke as tens of thousands of people were evacuated on buses from the Superdome in New Orleans to the Astrodome in Houston, more than 300 miles away, expressed sympathy for those still stranded.

"Thousands have been rescued, there are thousands more to be rescued," he said.

"I just can't imagine waving a sign that says `Come and get me now.'"

Bush said he has not yet finalized plans to visit the areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama affected by the storm, but he is expected to go within days. Bush brushed off criticism that he did not return to Washington from his monthlong stay at his Texas ranch on Tuesday, in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. Upon returning Wednesday, he held a meeting with top government officials guiding hurricane relief and made remarks in the Rose Garden.

"I hope people don't ... play politics during this period of time," he said. "This is a natural disaster - the likes of which our country may have never seen before - and it's a national emergency. And what we need to do as a nation is come together to solve the problem and not play politics. There'll be ample time for politics."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, meanwhile, said one problem is that "we have an ongoing flood situation even as we're in the middle of recovering from the hurricane."

"We're in a position where there are additional people we have to look for," he said in an interview on NBC"s "Today" show. "We're hoping to get the most people out as we can in the next 12 hours and 24 hours, but we're going to continue to search until we're sure we've got everybody safe."

"We've got hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced," Chertoff added. "This is unprecedented in this country's history and it's going to call for the kind of relief effort which we've been able to mount overseas, and we're now going to have to mount at home."

Appearing on CBS's "The Early Show," he said: "We understand that for every single person there, even an hour seems like an eternity. We have to make sure we address those whose needs are the greatest first and then make sure we get everybody else."

Bush has said the recovery will take years. He said the federal government has dispatched assistance to the Gulf Coast region, including 5.4 million precooked meals, 13.4 million liters of water, more than 1,000 search and rescue personnel and the floating hospital ship USNS Comfort. It was just the first trickle of help that Washington planned to provide to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, the president said.

An additional 10,000 National Guard troops from across the country began pouring into the Gulf Coast on Wednesday to shore up security, rescue and relief operations. The new units brought the number of troops dedicated to the effort to more than 28,000, in what may be the largest military response to a natural disaster.

The Pentagon was sending a broad contingent of ships, aircraft, trucks, medical support and other personnel to support federal agencies already providing aid to gulf region, including 60 helicopters to be used for search and rescue operations, damage assessment flights and the distribution of supplies.

With key Gulf Coast refineries and pipelines out of service, the Energy Department tried to keep fuel production steady by tapping an emergency government stockpile of oil and to temporarily ease pollution standards on gasoline and diesel fuel. But the president raised the possibility that the hurricane will lead to even higher gasoline prices and shortages in some areas.

Besides agreeing to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Bush said the administration has waved some Environmental Protection Agency regulations on blended fuel, which will mean there will be more fuel available, not only domestically, but also from imports. "Some fuels can't be used at this time of the season because of EPA regulations so we suspended it," Bush said. "Hopefully, that'll have some relief on price."

On Wednesday, Bush asked the pilot of Air Force One to fly over the Gulf Coast region as he returned to Washington from his Texas ranch so he could see the magnitude of devastation firsthand. He saw homes reduced to rubble in Mississippi and flood waters creeping toward downtown New Orleans, submerging homes nearly to their rooftops. it.

"All the devastation that I saw was very emotional," the president said. "I mean I cannot describe to you what it looks like to see entire neighborhoods under water."

He said that while the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 were a man-made disaster, the aftermath of Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina were "just as serious in both cases."

"New Orleans is more devastated than New York was," Bush said.

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On the Net:

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov  

Health and Human Services: http://www.hhs.gov  

Pentagon: http://www.defenselink.mil

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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