Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Hurricane Katrina

Bush: 'This great city will rise again'

By wire services
Published September 16, 2005

NEW ORLEANS - President Bush called Thursday night for the rebuilding of the devastated Gulf Coast through the creation of a gulf opportunity zone, a government enterprise that he said would provide help on taxes, housing, education and job training for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

"The work that has begun in the Gulf Coast region will be one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen," Bush said in remarks delivered in the French Quarter's Jackson Square against the brightly lit backdrop of St. Louis Cathedral, a symbol of the heart and soul of New Orleans for almost three centuries.

"There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again," the president said.

Bush acknowledged his administration had failed to respond adequately to Hurricane Katrina, which killed hundreds of people across five states. The government's costs for rebuilding could reach $200-billion or beyond.

"Four years after the frightening experience of Sept. 11, Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency," the president said. He said that when the federal government fails to meet such an obligation, "I, as president, am responsible for the problem, and for the solution."

Bush ordered all Cabinet secretaries to join in a comprehensive review of the government's faulty response. In addition, he ordered the Department of Homeland Security to undertake an immediate review of emergency plans in every major city in America.

He also said a disaster on the scale of Katrina requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces.

Unusual for a prime-time address, carried live by the major television networks, Bush stood tieless in a blue dress shirt. He delivered his speech after he was driven through empty, pitch-black streets, where Army troops on patrol from the 82nd Airborne Division stood on corners in the darkness saluting the motorcade as it passed.

Bush proposed establishment of worker recovery accounts providing up to $5,000 for job training, education and child care during victims' search for employment.

In his speech, he also said he would ask Congress to approve an Urban Homesteading Act in which surplus federal property would be turned over to low-income citizens by means of a lottery to build homes, with mortgages or assistance from charitable organizations.

Other proposals, according to congressional officials briefed by the White House, include:

A 100 percent reimbursement to states to cover their costs of health care for treating many evacuees through the end of next year.

$1.9-billion to reimburse states for educating displaced students.

Bush repeated a Red Cross hotline number, 1-877-568-3317,q for people to call to help reunite family members separated during the hurricane. Moments later, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., criticized Bush, saying "Leadership isn't a speech or a toll-free number."

"No American doubts that New Orleans will rise again," Kerry said. "They doubt the competence and commitment of this administration."

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, in a joint statement, said, "We are concerned by Bush administration initiatives this week waiving wage protections, environmental safeguards and protections for veterans, minorities, women and the disabled."

Bush described the hurricane's aftermath as "days of sorrow and outrage," and he said the nation had "witnessed the kind of desperation no citizen of this great and generous nation should ever have to know." He said the suffering of victims was tempered by acts of courage and kindness by the Coast Guard and other rescue workers. To the hundreds of thousands of people forced from their homes, Bush said, "You need to know that our whole nation cares about you - and in the journey ahead you are not alone."

Promising better days ahead, Bush said, "The streets of Biloxi and Gulfport will again be filled with lovely homes and the sound of children playing. The churches of Alabama will have their broken steeples mended and their congregations whole.

"And here in New Orleans, the street cars will once again rumble down St. Charles, and the passionate soul of a great city will return."

Bush faced the nation at a vulnerable point in his presidency. Most Americans disapprove of his handling of Katrina, and his job-approval rating has been dragged down to the lowest point of his presidency also because of dissatisfaction with the Iraq war and rising gas prices. He has struggled to demonstrate the same take-charge leadership he displayed after the Sept. 11 terror attacks four years ago.

Across five Gulf Coast states, the death toll from Katrina climbed Thursday to 794, led by 558 in Louisiana.

Faulting the government's response, Bush said that Katrina "was not a normal hurricane - and the normal disaster relief system was not equal to it." State officials have blamed the federal government for failing to respond more quickly, and federal officials have pointed fingers at state and local officials.

Responding to charges that help would have been sent more quickly if most victims had not been poor and black, Bush noted that the persistent poverty, rooted deep in the gulf region, was broadcast for all Americans to see.

"That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America," Bush said. "We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action."

Hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes into temporary shelters. Bush said the goal was to get evacuees out of shelters by mid October and into apartments and other homes, with assistance from the government. He said he would work with Congress to ensure that states were reimbursed for the cost of caring for evacuees.

Bush called for new measures to protect New Orleans from flooding and said the Army Corps of Engineers would work with state and local officials. "Protecting a city that sits lower than the water around it is not easy, but it can and has been done," he said.

"The work that has begun in the Gulf Coast region will be one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen," Bush said. He praised Americans for giving generously for disaster relief, saying the fund led by former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton had received pledges of more than $100-million.

Rebuilding across the region is expected to cost $200-billion or more in the near term. The final tab could approach the more than $300-billion spent thus far on U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress has already approved $62-billion for the disaster, but that is expected to run out next month.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., speaking after the president's address, said the recovery programs would add to the nation's debt. GOP leaders are open to suggestions from lawmakers to cut government spending elsewhere, he said.

Democrats called for greater, unspecified federal efforts and reasserted demands for an independent inquiry to look into failed federal, state and local efforts to evacuate residents of New Orleans and provide relief to those trapped by flooding.

Pelosi called for a World War II-style Marshall Plan for the Gulf Coast that would give preference to local residents for reconstruction jobs.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the flood lights and electricity used to illuminate Bush's speech were provided by White House generators and lighting equipment.

Information from the New York Times, Associated Press and Hearst Newspapers was used in this report.

[Last modified September 16, 2005, 01:37:08]