He'll Be There As Fast As He Can...
18 Months after Hurricane Katrina hits, Bush assures the Gulf Coast he will "speed up the recovery"!
I feel so good, especially living in Manhattan. It's been great, lo these 18 months, getting an up-close look at how this adminstration, charged by conservatives with "protecting us from terrorists" reacts to a wide-scale emergency. I don't know...it just feels like a preview.
Well, thank God Gore isn't President. I guess that's all there is to say.
Bush Notes Frustration in Gulf Coast Recovery
By ROBERT PEAR
NEW ORLEANS, March 1 — President Bush acknowledged on Thursday that many Gulf Coast residents remained frustrated with the slowness of rebuilding after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but said, “Times are changing for the better.”
On a trip inspecting new housing rising from the rubble in Mississippi and Louisiana, Mr. Bush visited homeowners, met local officials and promised to speed the recovery of areas flooded 18 months ago by the hurricanes.
It was Mr. Bush’s 14th trip to the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005.
At his first stop in New Orleans, Mr. Bush had lunch with state and local officials at Li’l Dizzy’s Café on the outskirts of the French Quarter. In brief remarks before the meal, Mr. Bush noted concerns about the rebuilding delays.
“I fully understand that there are frustrations, and I want to know the frustrations,” he said. “To the extent we can help, we’ll help.”
Earlier in Long Beach, Miss., near Gulfport and Biloxi, Mr. Bush joined Gov. Haley Barbour in a walking tour of houses that had been rebuilt with help from the federal government under the Community Development Block Grant program.
Though some members of Congress from both parties have said the federal government should do more to accelerate the recovery, Mr. Bush said he was impressed and inspired by the progress he saw.
But at a meeting with local officials in Biloxi, he said: “I fully understand that there’s still work to be done. There’s a continued frustration with the slowness of federal response at times.”
Wayne M. Baquet, owner of Li’l Dizzy’s restaurant, said: “It’s great that the president came to New Orleans. It’s great that he’s addressing the problems here. We may have 10,000 people living in trailers. That’s ridiculous.”
Business is good, said Mr. Baquet, brother of Dean Baquet, who was recently named Washington bureau chief of The New York Times.
“We need the middle class back,” Mr. Baquet said. “We lost a lot of our middle class.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/washington/02bush.html?pagewanted=print
18 Months after Hurricane Katrina hits, Bush assures the Gulf Coast he will "speed up the recovery"!
I feel so good, especially living in Manhattan. It's been great, lo these 18 months, getting an up-close look at how this adminstration, charged by conservatives with "protecting us from terrorists" reacts to a wide-scale emergency. I don't know...it just feels like a preview.
Well, thank God Gore isn't President. I guess that's all there is to say.
Bush Notes Frustration in Gulf Coast Recovery
By ROBERT PEAR
NEW ORLEANS, March 1 — President Bush acknowledged on Thursday that many Gulf Coast residents remained frustrated with the slowness of rebuilding after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but said, “Times are changing for the better.”
On a trip inspecting new housing rising from the rubble in Mississippi and Louisiana, Mr. Bush visited homeowners, met local officials and promised to speed the recovery of areas flooded 18 months ago by the hurricanes.
It was Mr. Bush’s 14th trip to the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005.
At his first stop in New Orleans, Mr. Bush had lunch with state and local officials at Li’l Dizzy’s Café on the outskirts of the French Quarter. In brief remarks before the meal, Mr. Bush noted concerns about the rebuilding delays.
“I fully understand that there are frustrations, and I want to know the frustrations,” he said. “To the extent we can help, we’ll help.”
Earlier in Long Beach, Miss., near Gulfport and Biloxi, Mr. Bush joined Gov. Haley Barbour in a walking tour of houses that had been rebuilt with help from the federal government under the Community Development Block Grant program.
Though some members of Congress from both parties have said the federal government should do more to accelerate the recovery, Mr. Bush said he was impressed and inspired by the progress he saw.
But at a meeting with local officials in Biloxi, he said: “I fully understand that there’s still work to be done. There’s a continued frustration with the slowness of federal response at times.”
Wayne M. Baquet, owner of Li’l Dizzy’s restaurant, said: “It’s great that the president came to New Orleans. It’s great that he’s addressing the problems here. We may have 10,000 people living in trailers. That’s ridiculous.”
Business is good, said Mr. Baquet, brother of Dean Baquet, who was recently named Washington bureau chief of The New York Times.
“We need the middle class back,” Mr. Baquet said. “We lost a lot of our middle class.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/washington/02bush.html?pagewanted=print
