Bush Speech Short of Gulf Coast Hopes

By Anne Rochell Konigsmark

NEW ORLEANS — Many Gulf Coast residents spent Wednesday angrily counting the words President Bush devoted to their storm-battered region in his State of the Union speech.

The tally: Bush addressed 165 of his 5,300 words to disaster recovery in the Gulf, and he never used the word “Katrina.”

“I waited until the bitter end,” Dottie Tabor, a New Orleans retiree, said as she bought food at a city market. “There was not enough at all about New Orleans, and he promised a lot when he was down here.”

At the end of his speech Tuesday, Bush spoke of the $85 billion that the federal government is giving to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf, but he did not propose any new funding. Tabor and others worry that the speech is a signal Bush has moved on to other issues.

In restaurants and shops, in newspapers and on the radio, people expressed their disappointment. “No New Promises for N.O. from Bush,” read a front-page headline in The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. More than 500 people responded to a survey on a New Orleans television news website, with some saying they felt insulted by the speech.

“I really did believe we had momentum at the end of the year,” said Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-La., referring to the $29 billion Congress approved in December for recovery. “I hoped the speech would expand upon that momentum, but I was frustrated and disappointed.”

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said more money is “on the way” and the president’s actions “speak louder than words.”

“The president has and will continue to do what is necessary, from the federal perspective, to help the people of the Gulf Coast rebuild their lives,” Duffy said.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita flattened communities and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes. Many parts of Louisiana and Mississippi look as they did when the storms hit on Aug. 29 and Sept. 24.

Dorothy Brown of Pass Christian, Miss., said she wasn’t surprised by the speech. The Mississippi Gulf Coast has stopped expecting answers from the federal government, she said: “We have been totally forgotten anyway.”

Matt Ryan, a New Orleans banker, said he thought Bush would propose new recovery plans. “I was hoping there would be some big new initiative,” he said.

Contributing: David Jackson in Washington; Chris Joyner of The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss.

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