Bush Sees ‘Optimism’ After Katrina

On the eve of the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush returned to the once-devastated blocks he walked after the storm, cheered the progress made in rebuilding the Gulf Coast and told those whose suffering continued: “The federal government stands with you still.”

In the clean white sand beaches, he saw a metaphor for what he promised would be “a new Mississippi.”

A year ago, Bush said during one of four stops here Monday, “the beaches were cluttered with debris and garbage; the beautiful beaches had been destroyed. And now they speak to the hope of this part of the world.”

He and his wife, Laura, spent about five hours here, driving and walking past the scars left by the storm -- a house under repair at one corner, vacant lots where homes once stood.

But he focused on the progress over the last year in rebuilding Biloxi and neighboring Gulfport and on the government’s commitment to reconstruction, which he said would take years to complete.

Today he will make a similar tour in New Orleans, where he is expected to attend a church service held at the time, one year earlier, that the levees were breached, inundating 80% of the city.

Marking Katrina’s one-year anniversary was a challenge for the White House. Bush’s initial response to the storm had been criticized as too slow and insensitive to the devastation in some of New Orleans’ poorest areas, and it brought the president -- whose approval ratings were already sinking -- new political woes.

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, Bush flew over the coast, examining the damage from a window of Air Force One on a vacation-ending flight from his Texas ranch to Washington.

In the last year, he noted Monday, he has made 11 visits to the region. He visited five times in the month after the storm hit.

Reflecting strong bipartisan cooperation, Bush and Congress moved relatively quickly to approve emergency spending to rebuild the region. Complaints now focus on delays in getting the money here: $110 billion was allocated; $44 billion has been spent.

The president said Monday that the lag was caused by the need to make sure the money was being spent properly; he added that he hoped $110 billion would suffice. “The checks have begun to roll; they’re beginning to move,” he said.

The latest hurricane threat to the United States, coming on Katrina’s first anniversary, raised anew the question of whether the administration has learned from its mistakes. Tropical Storm Ernesto was forecast to gain strength as it left Cuba and headed over open water today toward southern Florida. Engineers warn that a dike surrounding that state’s Lake Okeechobee could collapse in a powerful hurricane.

Speaking Monday to an invited group of about 100 gathered on a vacant lot at Claiborne and Fowler streets here, Bush said he understood the trauma that residents had experienced. But in remarks that gave almost no quarter to the evidence of devastation throughout the region, he stood under an unyielding sun and added: “I feel a quiet sense of determination that’s going to shape the future of Mississippi.... Each visit, you see progress.”

Optimism, he continued, “is the only option. We want to help; we want to help that optimism succeed.”

Behind him, just blocks north of the beach, stood three rebuilt houses and a child’s wooden playhouse, raised on stilts. “You can’t drive through this state without seeing signs of renewal and recovery,” he said.

Indeed, along U.S. 90, the highway that sweeps across the coast, there are just such signs. At Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, a digital sign ticked down the seconds until today’s grand reopening.

But as Bush spoke on the street corner here, just to his left -- not shown by the cameras -- sat a dejected-looking wood-frame structure, no longer a home, its railings upended, its windows broken, its outside coated with grime. Faded shreds of plastic tape, warning “DANGER,” remained tied to the dangling branch of a live oak tree.

In many places, the damage remains overwhelming: In Gulfport, the roof of the First Presbyterian Church, an impressive brick structure, is covered with blue plastic tarps. In Biloxi, the federal building and post office are in shambles. On some lots, only foundations remain, their owners’ memories and city records the only evidence of what once stood.

Numerous critical reports from Congress and interest groups have challenged the president’s assessments, and Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee issued another on Monday.

“Americans know that the Bush administration has fallen well short of expectations nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina hit,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, a senior Democrat on the committee, “and this report shows that they have not rebuilt enough homes, stimulated the economy, buried some of the dead, cut back on wasteful spending, or even cleaned up the mess.”

The president’s visit followed by several days one by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other Democrats sharply critical of the administration. More than 20 Democratic members of Congress, among them House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), are expected on the Gulf Coast this week.

Mississippi and its Republican governor, Haley Barbour, have generally been more supportive of Bush’s efforts than Louisiana, where Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco is in the statehouse.

By stopping here first, Bush was able to present the region’s recovery in a more favorable light than the more difficult rebuilding in New Orleans might allow. He also had lunch with community leaders and later visited United States Marine Inc., which builds special operations vessels for the Navy and has boosted its employment past pre-Katrina levels.

But even here, there have been frustrations: The federal government is making $150,000 grants available for home repair, and about 17,000 Mississippi households have applied for them. According to Scott Hamilton, a spokesman for the Mississippi Development Authority, the state has sent about two dozen checks.