President George W. Bush on Tuesday made his fifth tour in three weeks of the hurricane-battered US Gulf of Mexico coast, and heard a briefing on a new threat: Hurricane Rita.
The president took a helicopter from Gulfport, Mississippi, to New Orleans, Louisiana, flying over evidence of both ruin and recovery.
Some homes were flattened, trees were toppled, piers were crushed. Yet in some areas, debris had been piled up and blue tarps were patching roofs.
The US president also visited the Iwo Jima warship where government officials gave him a video briefing on Hurricane Rita – now threatening southern Florida, and later Texas or the Gulf Coast again.
The report Bush heard said there is only a five percent chance of Rita hitting New Orleans with hurricane force, but chances were as high as 25 percent that it would hit as a tropical storm. The current track had it aimed toward the Texas coast as a category three hurricane on Friday, authorities said.
"I've been briefed on the planning for what we pray is not a devastating storm," Bush said later at a Folger's Coffee facility where workers are living in temporary housing provided by the company.
"All up and down this coastline people are now preparing for what is anticipated to be yet another significant storm."
Bush had previously visited the region four times and flown over the area once since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29.
"Every time I come back here, I see progress. You know, sometimes when you're so close to the situation, it's hard to really see noticeable change. But this part of the country's changing. And it's – you're moving forward," Bush said earlier in Gulfport, Mississippi.
The US president met with officials and businesspeople in Gulfport before heading to Louisiana, which is now potentially threatened anew by Rita, just weeks after flooding devastated the once-vibrant jazz capital.
"I did hear from the mayors. And the county supervisors. And there was a level of frustration. As there should have been," Bush allowed.
"One of the questions I asked in Washington, DC, as the principal party responsible for rebuilding infrastructure is, have you got your assessment teams out there? You know, looking at these bridges requires more than just, you know, writing a check.
"It requires the Coast Guard to look at the spans. We're trying to get this recovery going by plowing through the paperwork requirements, as fast as possible, so that we can reduce the frustrations here," Bush said.
