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Bush to see devastation in New Orlean
It has taken nearly two weeks since Hurricane Katrina smashed into the Gulf Coast and drowned this storied city for President Bush to get his first up-close look at just how ruined New Orleans is, the Associated Press reported. Bush spent Sunday night on a military amphibious assault ship docked in the Mississippi River just behind the city's convention center — now eerily empty but still strewn with piles of trash — that was the scene of so much misery in the days after the storm. Traveling across the deserted city before bunking down aboard the USS Iwo Jima, Bush also visited "Tent City," the campus of the Our Lady of Holy Cross College that is now the massive staging area for hundreds of weary and dirty but enthusiastic firefighters from around the country. They included New York City firemen who brought back a truck that the state of Louisiana and private donors gave after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The president was to start the day Monday with a briefing on the hurricane response effort on board the 844-foot Iwo Jima, which that has been a command center for military relief efforts, and ending it in Gulfport, Miss. In between, plans called for him to ride in a convoy of military trucks to get a lengthy look at New Orleans' damaged and flooded neighborhoods. He was also touring hard-hit surrounding parishes by helicopter, touching down to meet with local leaders. Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, commander of the approximately 17,000 active-duty troops helping with the storm effort, and Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen met Bush when his helicopter landed Sunday on the Iwo Jima and stuck with him from there on. It was Bush's first direct meeting with Allen since he became the new federal face of relief efforts — replacing Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency who was recalled to Washington on Friday after coming to personify a relief operation widely panned as bumbling. White House chief of staff Andrew Card said "I have great confidence" in the team now running the federal effort. The trip is Bush's third and longest to the disaster area, and it came as the White House is eager to show the president displaying hands-on, empathetic leadership in the storm effort. More than half of respondents in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll last week said he is at fault for the slow response. Card said Bush's repeated visits have tangible value: "It reminds people of the mission at hand." Bush has seen flooded New Orleans twice from the air — from aboard Air Force One on the way back to the White House from his Texas ranch two days after Katrina hit, and again from a helicopter two days after that when he made his first on-the-ground visit to storm-ravaged areas of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Although he stopped at the New Orleans airport and went to the site of one of the breached levees on the edge of the city, Bush had stayed far from the epicenter of the city's suffering. The city's devastation is immense. Still, the situation has improved markedly in the last week. Law and order has been restored to New Orleans and looting curtailed; the Superdome and city convention center, the scene of so much misery while storm evacuees waited for days for buses out with no food and water, are empty; the water level is going down as workers begin to drain the city; and some power is being restored. In Mississippi, the president was scheduled to spend about an hour and a half on the ground, making two stops before returning to Washington. Many of Gulfport's streets are still littered with the debris of the storm, which put trees, cars, furniture, boats, homes and even casinos in places they should not be, and shortages of necessities are common. But the ravaged town has seen a little improvement as well — with some businesses open and people buying supplies to make repairs. Democrats have not been shy about seizing on the discontent with Bush's performance. "Sadly, the federal government's lack of preparation followed by its inept response had deadly consequences for far too many Americans in Katrina's path," party Chairman Howard Dean said. Sen. Mary Landrieu (news, bio, voting record), D-La., said it is unfortunate that the White House has undertaken a "full-court press" to deflect blame for the poor early response to the storm away from the Bush administration and onto state and local officials. Bush spokesman Scott McClellan responded: "What we're trying to do is work together with state and local officials to meet the needs of the people in the region."
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