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Bush Remembers Victims of Katrina NewsMax.com Wires NEW ORLEANS -- President Bush paused Tuesday to remember the hundreds who died in New Orleans, which has been slow to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina a year ago. Looking to local leaders to design a rebuilding plan that can speed its revival, Bush went to breakfast with Mayor Ray Nagin before attending a somber prayer service marking the first anniversary of the nation's costliest natural disaster. Half the power is still out here, and half the people have not yet returned. Bush and Nagin chose Betsy's Pancake House, a well-known local breakfast hangout that reopened in March. The restaurant on Canal Street is in an area of modest bungalows and shotgun homes - some boarded up and in disrepair. Water lines halfway up the first stories were still visible from the flooding. Bush and Nagin discussed the slow pace of recovery at dinner in New Orleans Monday night, and they also talked about how to accelerate the flow of federal assistance. The prayer service was at St. Louis Cathedral, a triple-spired church left virtually untouched by the fierce winds and high waters that hit the city Aug. 29, 2005. The church stands in Jackson Square, in the heart of the French Quarter, where Bush last year acknowledged that his administration had failed to respond adequately to the hurricane. The White House is hoping that if the Gulf Coast shows signs of renewal, that mark on Bush's presidency will be erased. "Money is beginning to go out the door so people can rebuild their lives," Bush said Monday in Biloxi, Miss. "In Louisiana, it's been a little slower." As he did in Biloxi, Bush was not visiting here to dwell on the disaster, but highlight rebuilding efforts. Story Continues Below
"My message to the people down here is that we understand there's more work to be done, and just because a year has passed, the federal government will remember the people," Bush said in Biloxi. "This is an anniversary, but it doesn't mean it ends. It's the beginning of what is going to be a long recovery, but I'm amazed by the opportunity. I'm amazed by the hope that I feel down here." First lady Laura Bush said "it takes more than just money." "It really takes the efforts of everyone who lived here, who wants to come back, of all public officials, local, state and federal, of other neighbors, other people can figure out a way to help," she said on ABC's "Good Morning America." Tuesday. "Was the federal government slow? Sure, probably. Was every government slow, state and local? Sure. But have they responded in a very, very helpful way? I think they have. "I think we'll look back on it and we'll see it for what it was: the largest disaster that our country has ever faced and a huge disaster," she said. "Could we have done better? Sure, but are we doing what we can now? Absolutely." Nationally, 67 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's handling of the Katrina disaster, according to an AP-Ipsos poll earlier this month. In New Orleans, frustration with the state, local and federal response, however, continues to run as deep-seated here as the poverty exposed by the floodwaters, which forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. The death toll in Louisiana from Katrina is close to 1,600, including nearly 300 who died in other states after fleeing from the hurricane. In Jackson Square last year, Bush offered three proposals to help fight poverty. One idea was carried out. The Gulf Opportunity Zone is giving $8.7 billion in tax breaks to developers of low-income housing, small businesses and individuals. But worker recovery accounts, which were meant to help victims find work by paying for school, job training and child care, didn't materialize. And neither did the Urban Homesteading Act that would give poor people sites to build homes that they would finance themselves or get through programs like Habitat for Humanity. Only 50 percent of New Orleans has electricity. Half its hospitals remain closed. Violent crime is up. Less than half the population has returned. Tens of thousands of families still live in trailers and mobile homes with no real timetable for moving to more permanent housing. Insurance settlements are mired in red tape. The city still has no master rebuilding plan. And while much debris has been cleared, some remains as if the clock stopped when the storm struck. So far, Congress has approved $110 billion in hurricane aid. The Bush administration has released $77 billion to the states, reserving the rest for future needs, but $33 billion of that has not yet been spent.
© 2006 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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