Bush to Visit Hurricane-Ravaged Gulf Coast
Posted on: Thursday, 12 January 2006, 03:00 CST
By NEDRA PICKLER
WASHINGTON - President Bush will make his first visit in three months to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, where, his chief of staff says, there is still "great need - indescribable need."
Andy Card said the Thursday trip to New Orleans and Mississippi was for Bush to see progress there firsthand and personally restate his commitment to rebuilding.
Bush was meeting with New Orleans business executives, then giving a speech on reconstruction in Waveland, Miss.
His message was that although recovery will be long and expensive, the federal government is in it for the long haul, said White House spokesman Trent Duffy.
"The destruction down there looks like it just happened yesterday," Duffy said. "It's easy for people outside the region to forget the challenges they still face."
Card, speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, said the Gulf Coast economy is struggling and only about half of the 90 million tons of debris from Hurricane Katrina in August has been cleared.
In New Orleans, many neighborhoods are still abandoned wastelands, with uninhabitable homes, no working street lights and sidewalks piled with moldy garbage. The levee system is as vulnerable as ever. Barely a quarter of the 400,000 people who fled have come back, demographers estimate.
"While there has great progress, there continues to be great need - indescribable need," Card said.
When New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin encouraged displaced residents in town hall meetings last month to come home, they asked why they should return without services or rebuilding plans in place.
Bush was meeting with a handful of business executives to tout a law he signed last fall giving them incentives to hire people and bring jobs back to the region. Don Powell, the top U.S. official for reconstruction, also was attending.
Bush hasn't been to the coast since a trip to Louisiana and Mississippi Oct. 10-11.
He was initially criticized for a slow federal response to the disaster, then made eight trips to the region in six weeks, and the White House hardly went a day without an event or mention of the challenges there.
Then Bush shifted his focus to Iraq and a series of recent speeches designed to defend against growing criticism of the war. Eager to show that his attention to Katrina victims continues, the White House announced last month that the government would pay to rebuild New Orleans' shattered levee system taller and stronger than before - but not necessarily to the level that local officials wanted.
Before returning to Washington Thursday night, Bush planned to attend a Republican National Committee fundraiser at the sprawling oceanfront estate of Dwight Schar in Palm Beach, Fla. Schar is CEO of NVR Homes, a major homebuilder and mortgage banking company, and co-owner of the Washington Redskins football team. He raised more than $200,000 for Bush's re-election campaign.
---
On the Net:
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
Related Articles
- Spotlight: Gulf Coast Storm - Katrina-Hit Region Puts Faith in Plans -- 'Different Now,' Says Chertoff
- The National Urban League, BP America, and the Urban League of Greater New Orleans Bring the Gulf Coast Economic Empowerment Tour to New Orleans
- Iranian President Speech Highlights Need for Low-Cost Housing
- Calderon Tells Bush Mexico Needs More
- Bush's Budget Beefs Up Defense: White House Predicts a Surplus By 2012
- With Ernesto Threatening, Bush Visiting Katrina-Ravaged Gulf Coast
- New Orleans Needs One Levees Chief, Engineers Say
- Clean Air Partners Issues Code Red Air Quality Health Advisory for Metropolitan Washington Region
- Bush Pitches in With Gulf Coast Rebuilding
- Bush Orders U.S. Troops to Liberia Coast
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds