02 September 2005
Bush Surveys Hurricane Katrina's Devastation
President vows to rebuild stricken Gulf Coast region
By Michael O'Toole
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Proclaiming that he was there "to comfort people" and let them know that “we're going to ... get this thing solved," President Bush arrived in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast region of the United States September 2 to survey firsthand the damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina days earlier.
"We have a responsibility, at the federal level, to help save life, and that's the primary focus right now," Bush remarked during his first stop, in Mobile, Alabama. He thanked the U.S. Congress for acting to approve $10.5 billion for emergency disaster relief. (See related article.)
After the situation is stabilized, the president promised that the stricken region would be rebuilt, "that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before," and that "[o]ut of New Orleans is going to come that great city again."
Bush announced that his father, former President George H.W. Bush, along with former President Bill Clinton, will raise money to fund long-term reconstruction efforts in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Three public service announcements for television featuring the former presidents will direct viewers to www.usafreedomcorps.gov, where they can find a listing of regional relief organizations seeking contributions.
The president also urged private citizens to give cash to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, from "where the first help will come." Other opportunities to help will come later, he said, "but right now the immediate concern is to save lives and get food and medicine to people so we can stabilize the situation."
Bush then traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi, where he took a walking tour and found the devastation "worse than imaginable." He consoled victims and said he had met a survivor of an earlier disaster, Hurricane Camille in 1969, who had this to say: “We felt safe here in this part of the neighborhood because Camille didn't hit it. And sure enough, we witnessed a storm worse than Camille."
While saluting state and local leaders for their “strong leadership,” Bush said he found “a spirit here in Mississippi that is uplifting.” He also met with local emergency workers and praised them for their work, in particular “some chopper drivers [helicopter crewmen], guys dangling off of cables that are pulling people out of harm's way.”
Efforts to offset oil refinery losses due to Katrina were now under way, the president noted. He announced that the Environmental Protection Agency is suspending "rules for types of gasoline which attracted fuel from overseas." He added that it is important to open the Gulf port of Pascagoula, Mississippi, "so we can get ships of foreign crude oil to the refinery." (See related article.)
Asked about the situation in New Orleans, Bush responded that the city "got hit by two storms, one the hurricane, and then the flood. And it's going to take a monumental effort to continue moving forward, but we will."
The president's wife was also in the region. In Lafayette, Louisiana, first lady Laura Bush met with victims and visited a site where children from New Orleans were being registered to attend school; she noted how important it was to give children "a sense of normalcy." She thanked residents in the neighboring state of Texas for offering shelter to displaced people and added that "school districts are also opening up" in the Texas cities of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio to accommodate Louisiana children.
"The European and Asian sister cities of Lafayette ... have already contacted the mayor [and] want to help in whatever way they can here," the first lady reported. She reiterated her husband's call for donations to the Red Cross and urged that "people who want to volunteer, and who have the ability to be able to come to Louisiana or any of the Gulf Coast states that were affected and volunteer, to try to do that. If you can't do it this week, there will be next week and the next week … it's going to go on for a long time."
New Orleans was the president’s final destination of the day. He surveyed the flooded city by helicopter and met with Louisiana’s governor and two U.S. senators, along with the New Orleans mayor. Calling the city’s plight a situation that required “immediate action now,” Bush announced that a large contingent of National Guard troops had arrived and that food and water was being distributed at shelters. He also reported that work was progressing “around the clock, 24 hours a day” on repairing the breached levee and pumping floodwater out of the city.
Before his flight back to Washington, Bush defined Katrina and its aftermath as “one of the worst national disasters we have faced.” He said he looked forward to working with regional and national officials “to help the good folks from this part of the world get back on its feet,” and restated his belief that “the great city of New Orleans will rise again and be a greater city.”
For additional information, see Hurricane Katrina.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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