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Bush views hurricane damage on 7th trip to region

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 September 2005, 15:03 CDT

By Steve Holland

LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush flew over hurricane-damaged homes and oil installations on Tuesday on his seventh trip to survey recovery efforts as he asked Americans to reduce energy consumption.

"This area is hurting," Bush said. "I saw firsthand how it's hurting."

After directing White House staff to curb nonessential travel, Bush was briefed by local officials about the damage from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, first in Texas and then in Louisiana where he took an aerial tour that included flying over an offshore oil rig.

With a heavily damaged airport hanger as a backdrop in Lake Charles, Bush urged people displaced by Rita to heed the advice of state and local officials to not return to their homes until water and power have been restored.

"I understand there's a lot of frustrations with the people who left this part of the country, people who are scattered around and want to come back and see their homes," Bush said. "But it's very important for them to understand that now is not the time to come back."

The trip to Texas and Louisiana was the seventh since Bush began visiting the region five days after Hurricane Katrina struck August 29, killing more than 1,000 people. The devastation caught the federal government off guard, putting Bush on the defensive over the slow and chaotic response.

Katrina and Rita also helped push gasoline prices to record highs, hitting Americans in their wallets and raising concerns about the impact on the economy.

While asking Americans and federal agencies to conserve energy, the White House said Bush was unlikely to curtail his travels to the hurricane region.

"The president believes that it's important to get a firsthand account of the operations that are ongoing to provide relief to the people in need," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

To help conserve energy, the White House said orders were issued to staff to restrict nonessential travel and to reduce use of electricity by shutting off printers, fax machines and lights. The White House staff was also instructed to turn up office thermostats.

The White House said it was reducing the size of the presidential motorcade, which numbered about a dozen vehicles during Bush's stop in Beaumont, Texas. The motorcade can run more than 20 vehicles for some trips.

COST SHARPLY UP TO RUN AIR FORCE ONE

One of the heftiest costs of presidential travel entails flying Air Force One, a reconfigured Boeing 747-200B. Bush already has made stops in Mississippi, Colorado, Texas and Louisiana, including four in New Orleans, the low-lying city flooded by Katrina.

While precise costs were not available, Maj. Brenda Campbell, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said that as of a month ago, before Katrina struck, fuel expenses for the biggest airplane of the Air Force One fleet was $6,029 per hour, compared to $3,974 an hour in fiscal year 2004.

Bush, whose administration was sharply criticized for a slow federal response to Katrina, has responded more swiftly to Hurricane Rita.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said, "I do want to tell you that some things worked right this time. We learned a lot of lessons from our previous experience with Katrina."

During his visit to the region, Bush's Marine One helicopter carried him over the swampy bayou country in the southwestern part of Louisiana that took the brunt of Rita. He flew twice over a heavily damaged oil refinery and banked low and circled an offshore oil rig that appeared to be in relatively good shape.

McClellan said the White House hoped to have an estimate for the cost of Katrina recovery efforts soon. He did not embrace either the $100 billion figure that came out of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office, nor the estimate from the Louisiana congressional delegation of $250 billion.

Source: REUTERS

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