WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., charged Saturday President Bush's visit to a New Orleans levee Friday was a "photo opportunity" on a "hastily prepared stage set."
Landrieu repeated her call for the president to appoint a cabinet-level official to oversee the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, reported KTAL-TV in Shreveport, La.
Landrieu said in a statement she had hoped Bush would come away from his Friday tour of devastated areas "with a new understanding for the magnitude of the suffering and for the abject failures of the current Federal Emergency Management Agency." Instead, she said, FEMA is overwhelmed by the challenge.
Landrieu said FEMA had yet to accept an offer of equipment from the U.S. Forest Service to fight fires on the New Orleans riverfront, and dragged its feet when Amtrak offered trains for evacuations.
She said when she toured the 17th Street levee with Bush Friday, she believed "a real and significant" recovery effort was under way.
"Flying over this critical spot again (Saturday) morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a presidential photo opportunity," she said, "and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment."
