President Remarks on Hurricane Recovery Efforts
By Gary Gross
Let Freedom Ring
President Bush addressed the nation from the tarmac at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, which is actually located in Kenner, LA. Here's a couple comments from his speech that got my attention:
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The Governor & the Mayor of New Orleans, Sen. Landrieu, Sen. Vitter & Congressman Jefferson, Congressman Jindal & General Blum & I have just completed a tour of some devastated country. I started in Alabama & worked our way down through Mississippi & ended up here in one of America's great cities & I saw first-hand the devastation that this city has gone through. I know the people of this part of the world are suffering & I want them to know that there's a flow of progress. We're making progress. I want to thank the Governor for her hard work & I want to thank the Mayor.
I know that some of the folks in the outlying parishes here in Louisiana are wondering whether or not people are paying attention to them. We are. St. Charles, St. Bernard, Plaquemine Parish, I understand the devastation that you've gone through as well. So does the Governor.
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What's so striking about this opening paragraph to his speech is that he didn't take a shot at Mayor Nagin, who's been cheapshotting him since Thursday but instead focused on letting people know that relief efforts are underway & making progress. It's great to see that President Bush's focus is strictly on improving life for the people whose lives were ruined by Katrina. He isn't concerned about the politicking because that's just a distraction.
I also liked that he singled out "some of the folks in the outlying parishes here in Louisiana..." While New Orleans & Mississippi's Gulf Coast have gotten most of the media attention, the President chose to let people in the outlying parishes know that they aren't forgotten & that he wants to help them too.
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The people of this part of the world have got to understand, & by the way, we just came from the 17th Street levee. A lot of folks are working hard to repair that levee. They've been working around the clock, 24 hours a day. People from the federal government & the state government & the local government are working to breach that, to fill that breach. The Mayor’s been telling me, not only by telephone, but here in person, how important it is that we get that breach filled & get that pump station up & running. And we went there to inspect the progress being done & the people of New Orleans have got to understand there's a lot of people working hard & they're making good progress.
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It's vitally important to the citizens of New Orleans to know that progress is being made to repair this breach so that they can start pumping out the water that flooded in from Lake Pontchartrain.
UPDATE: I just heard that the Army Corp of engineers aren't fixing the breach because they've determined that the water that flooded the city is actually starting to flow back into the lake. Repairing the breach right now would work against their goal. I can't confirm that but I'll keep you posted as I hear more.
Follow this link to read the entire speech.
whitehouse.gov
Follow this link to see pictures of the President's day touring the disaster zone.
whitehouse.gov
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