Bush Hears Plans for New Orleans Renewal

President Bush on Monday made his fifth visit to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, meeting with state and local officials over a private dinner in the French Quarter to review rebuilding plans.

Bush dined at Bacco, owned by the family that also owns the landmark Brennan’s restaurant, with members of the Bring Back New Orleans Commission, which was set up by Mayor C. Ray Nagin. Also invited were Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, who is in charge of federal relief efforts, and Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, who is leading the military’s response to Katrina.

“The president pledged that he would be a partner as the Gulf Coast region recovered and rebuilds itself,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Trent Duffy. “He looks forward to hearing from the leaders of the communities themselves about how they want to rebuild.”

With a self-imposed deadline rapidly approaching, the president also monitored progress on his ambitious goal of emptying all temporary shelters set up after Hurricane Katrina by mid-October.

But as many as 32,000 evacuees from hurricanes Katrina and Rita were still in 468 shelters around the country as of the weekend, the government said.

In his Sept. 15 prime-time address to the nation from the city’s Jackson Square, Bush said one of his goals was to “get people out of the shelters by the middle of October” and into houses, apartments, mobile homes and trailers.

When he arrived in New Orleans on Monday, Duffy said, Bush met at the airport with leaders of Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes. The Plaquemines representatives expressed concern that about 70% of that county’s population had been displaced, Duffy said.

Bush and the parish leaders also discussed the difficulties involved in repairing and maintaining the levees that are supposed to protect New Orleans from flooding. There is a particular challenge, Duffy said, “in trying to bring together a system” that is more cohesive because some levees are controlled federally, others by local authorities and still others privately.

Today, Bush and his wife, Laura, are scheduled to participate in a Habitat for Humanity project in the New Orleans suburb of Covington before going to Pass Christian, Miss., to attend the reopening of Delisle Elementary School. Habitat for Humanity is building homes for storm victims.

During his only other post-Katrina overnight stay in New Orleans, Bush slept on the Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship that was docked on the Mississippi River near the convention center. But on this trip, his eighth to the region, the president and his entourage spent the night at the Windsor Court Hotel near the French Quarter.