Posted on 08/29/2006 5:50:26 AM PDT by radar101
A year after Hurricane Katrina devastated Mississippi and Louisiana, President Bush and Democratic leaders are converging on the Gulf Coast this week to commemorate the losses while continuing the political argument over the federal response to the country's largest domestic disaster.
Arriving yesterday in the seaside city of Biloxi in the first stop of a two-day visit that later took him to New Orleans, Bush paid homage to the grit of ordinary Mississippians for their efforts to rebuild their communities and promised that his administration would not neglect them as memories of the storm fade. “One year doesn't mean that we'll forget,” Bush said after lunching on fried shrimp and gumbo with community and state leaders at Ole Biloxi Schooner, a small restaurant. “Now is the time to renew our commitment to let the people down here know that we will stay involved and help the people of Mississippi rebuild their lives.”
Katrina struck one year ago today. About 2,000 people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced by the disaster.
In returning to scenes of one of his administration's biggest embarrassments, Bush visited a city that remains a shell of its former self. Much of the debris has been removed and casinos are starting to sprout along Biloxi's waterfront, but empty lots abound, thousands of displaced people continue to live in trailers and federal money is only beginning to trickle down to individuals and businesses, local leaders say.
Democratic lawmakers and liberal advocacy groups flocked to the Gulf Coast in Bush's wake to offer their own, vastly harsher, assessments of how well Bush and the federal government have performed in rebuilding communities swamped by Katrina. In an interview, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast was going “not very well,” and asserted that federal agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration were botching the delivery of federal funds to individuals and small enterprises.
“Yes, the recovery is under way,” Landrieu said. “It is still painfully slow. We have unnecessarily lost so much because the system is overburdened.”
Landrieu has been joined by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., for parts of what she has termed a “hope and recovery” tour of the region. Inspecting damaged sections of New Orleans along with other lawmakers yesterday, another prominent Democrat, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, predicted that Americans would be “very surprised to know this recovery is way, way behind what their expectations would have been.”
The administration's initial, halting response to Katrina, most noticeable in New Orleans, was a political debacle that even some Bush supporters say still burdens the White House. Nationwide surveys give Bush low marks on Katrina. An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month found that 67 percent of Americans disapproved of his handling of the disaster.
Mindful of the symbolism of the one-year hurricane anniversary, White House aides have been distributing fact sheets suggesting progress, including the more than $110 billion in federal money set aside by Congress for Gulf Coast assistance and reconstruction.
Less than half of that has been spent, and Mississippi and Louisiana officials have been complaining about red tape slowing the flow of funds for housing and small businesses.
Tommy Longo, the mayor of Waveland, another hard-hit Gulf Coast town, does not blame Bush for the delay. He said he was unsure who is at fault.
“I don't think the money is held up in Washington – it is held up somewhere in between,” said Longo, as he awaited the president's appearance in Biloxi.
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who accompanied Bush on his visit to Biloxi, said a combination of factors had caused the government to stall.
“Part of it is federal bureaucracy,” Lott said. “Part of it is state bureaucracy.”
The carefully scripted White House visit to Mississippi left little possibility of Bush encountering much anger over federal reconstruction efforts. After meeting with Republican Gov. Haley Barbour and other leaders for lunch, Bush toured a working-class East Biloxi neighborhood that he visited a year ago. He passed empty lots and FEMA trailers along the way. Some of the same people he met last year were in a friendly audience of several dozen local residents who heard from Bush after he finished yesterday's tour, a few clutching pictures of themselves being consoled by the president last September in the aftermath of the storm. One of them was Patrick Wright, 38, a FedEx driver whose house was destroyed by the storm. Wright is now living in a FEMA trailer.
Wright expressed satisfaction with Bush's efforts on behalf of Mississippi, saying that while he still was waiting for federal housing money so he could begin rebuilding his house, he felt the government was moving as fast as possible.
“Some people say it was slow, but for the number of people affected, you expect it to be slow,” Wright said.
In his remarks to Wright and his neighbors, Bush acknowledged “some frustration” among homeowners but said the government was “working hard to make sure that when that money is spent, it's spent well, and it goes to people who deserve it.”
Later, speaking to reporters after visiting a shipbuilding business in Gulfport, Bush said it would take “years, not months” for the area to be fully rebuilt, though he did not mention a specific time frame.
“The progress in one year's time has been remarkable,” Bush said.
In Mississippi, the clean-up from Katrina has been judged to be moving somewhat more quickly than in neighboring Louisiana, but there remains a huge reconstruction task and lingering complaints from many locals that New Orleans has drawn the focus of national attention. Mississippi appears to have benefited from a less fractious political environment than in Louisiana, with Barbour – a former top lobbyist in Washington – capitalizing on his extensive ties and the state's power in Congress to leverage extra funds.
Bush alluded to the difference between Mississippi and Louisiana in developing reconstruction plans.
“In Louisiana, its been a little slower,” Bush told reporters in Gulfport. “And I look forward to talking to the folks there about what we can do to work together to expedite these plans being implemented.”
MONUMENT TO NAGIN
A massive mound of debris remains at a collection point in New Orleans. President Bush yesterday acknowledged "some frustration" over the pace of reconstruction efforts on the Gulf Coast, but he wanted residents to know, "One year doesn't mean that we'll forget."
NOTE the Chart at the bottom of the article. States with Republican governors are recovered.Proof again that Democrats solution of throwing money down a hole does not work.
You mean that Katrina hit Texas.??? I was here and don't recall that. Rita whacked us very badly but nobody remembers that little breeze. The focus has only been on the sewerhole called New Orleans. What a pity. Throwing good money after bad.
They are complaining that Bush took forever to solve each and every problem caused by the hurricane (never mind that the problems were 30 years old and nobody did anything).
But I am positive I recall Bush calling the area a disaster area 2 or 3 days before the hurricane hit, thereby allowing federal assistance to begin to get ready.
I can't afford Lexis-Nexis or I'd do my own research of the news. Anybody else remember him declaring a disaster area before the hurricane hit?
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