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McCain, Graham Visit N.O. Disaster Areas *** Senators Vow Support for City

Posted on: Saturday, 11 March 2006, 18:00 CST

By JOE GYAN JR.

McCain, Graham visit N.O. disaster areas *** Senators vow support for city

NEW ORLEANS - Republican U.S. Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina toured hard-hit areas of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish on Friday and, like the more than 100 members of Congress who have come before them, left with lasting impressions of Hurricane Katrina's devastation and heartbreak while pledging to help the area rebuild.

McCain, standing across the street from the 17th Street Canal levee breach amid flood-ravaged homes in New Orleans' devastated Lakeview area, said he believes Congress will approve in the next few weeks an additional $4.2 billion that President Bush requested for Louisiana housing recovery.

Bush visited New Orleans on Wednesday and called on Congress to honor his proposal to earmark the extra $4.2 billion for Louisiana's post-hurricane housing needs. The president said he is counting on lawmakers to reverse a move by leaders of the House Appropriations Committee that would let Mississippi, Alabama and Texas vie for the cash.

The money is part of a $92 billion supplemental spending request the president proposed last month, including $19.8 billion for Gulf Coast recovery.

McCain refused to call the $4.2 billion an "earmark" for Louisiana but said he backs Bush's request.

"I will support (it) being sustained," he said, flanked by Graham; Women of the Storm founder Anne Milling; U.S. Sen. David Vitter's wife, Wendy; and dozens of students from the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans.

But McCain said the money will be meaningless without proper levee and barrier island protection.

"We've got to address the environmental factors that made this disaster the magnitude that it was," he said.

"If you don't build the levees right, why spend money anywhere else," Graham added, saying the "good old boy" system of building levees will not be tolerated.

Graham, who recalled what Hurricane Hugo did to his home state and said the devastation in the New Orleans area is "beyond your comprehension," promised that the money will flow to Louisiana.

"If all it's going to take is some money, you're going to get the money," he said.

But Graham also sounded a note of caution.

"Before you spend $4.2 billion, I would like to see a master plan," he said. "It would be a huge mistake to flood this area with money until a game plan is developed."

After touring Lakeview, the Lower 9th Ward, eastern New Orleans, and Arabi and Chalmette in St. Bernard, Graham said he was encouraged by what he saw.

"The game plan to rebuild this area is much more mature than I realized. What you read and what you see and what you hear doesn't reflect what's going on, on the ground," he said. "I leave here incredibly optimistic that this part of the Gulf Coast is going to rebound."

Acknowledging that Charleston, S.C., did not have the same problems with Hugo that New Orleans experienced with Katrina, Graham said Charleston is stronger and better today.

"Some day, New Orleans will be as well," he said.

New Orleans City Councilman Jay Batt, who represents the Lakeview area, attended McCain's and Graham's news conference and said the senators will be good ambassadors for New Orleans.

"They get it - coastal restoration and levees," he said. "We just need to keep bringing them (members of Congress) back. They're strong messengers."

Batt said Lakeview "still looks terrible" more than six months after Katrina hit.

"It's still unbelievable to me. Just the enormity of it," said Kathy McGoey, a Women of the Storm member whose two-story home in the Lakeview area suffered six feet of floodwater. "It's upsetting. I haven't slept in my own bed in my own house for six months."

McGoey got the keys to the FEMA trailer in her front yard Friday. Once electricity is restored to her house, McGoey - who is married and has two teenage children - plans to live on the second floor and use the trailer as a kitchen.

"I have good days and bad days," she said, admitting she is nervous about the upcoming hurricane season.

McCain said seeing is believing when it comes to Katrina's wrath in the New Orleans area.

"You cannot appreciate the enormity of it until you see it. I know that's been said a thousand times, but it bears repeating," he said.

Milling, who organized Women of the Storm to keep the spotlight on New Orleans and to advocate for stronger levees and coastal restoration, asked McCain and Graham to encourage their fellow lawmakers to visit New Orleans if they have not already done so.

"A national disaster has occurred. We deserve a national response," she said.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, will tour the New Orleans area Monday. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., toured the area last weekend with 30 other House members.

Women of the Storm, which hosted McCain and Graham, is offering members of Congress all-expenses-paid trips to the city to see the devastation in person.

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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