Bush: New Orleans not forgotten

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush observed a moment of silence on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and said the White House has not forgotten New Orleans.

Accompanied by first lady Laura Bush, the president Wednesday made his 15th trip to the Gulf Coast region since Katrina battered the region Aug. 29, 2005.

“Hurricane Katrina broke through the levees. It broke a lot of hearts. It destroyed buildings. But it didn’t affect the spirit of a lot of citizens in this community,” Bush said at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward.

Bush assured New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin the federal government is still paying attention to the city and noted that Washington had sent the Gulf Coast $114 billion in aid as the region struggles to rebuild.

“My attitude is this,” the president said. “New Orleans, better days are ahead.”

However, The New Orleans Time-Picayune ran a front-page editorial under the masthead headlined,” Treat us fairly, Mr. President,” saying Louisiana shouldn’t have to compete with Mississippi for disaster aid. Bush was to visit Mississippi Wednesday to inspect reconstruction projects.

New Orleans’ population is about 60 percent of the 484,000 it had been before the hurricane killed an estimated 1,800 people and damaged or destroyed 300,000 homes on the Gulf.