Bush visits a skeptical New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS – President Bush marked the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina by trying to reassure the people of the Gulf Coast that they were not forgotten, declaring that “the town is coming back” at an appearance Wednesday in the devastated Lower Ninth Ward.

But the president appeared on the defensive as he was forced to contend with cynicism in the region about his administration and a barrage of criticism from Democrats that the administration had failed to do enough to help speed the area’s recovery from the storm’s destruction.

“I come telling the folks in this part of the world that we still understand there’s problems and we’re still engaged,” Bush said in his remarks at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School. Bush, on his 15th trip to the region since Katrina struck, spoke after marking a moment of silence at 9:38 a.m. local time, the moment the levees were breached, flooding some 80 percent of the city.

Two weeks after the hurricane made landfall, Bush stood in historic Jackson Square and promised to rebuild the region with “one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen.” Since then, things have moved slowly despite massive allocations of money. The federal government has set aside $114 billion for storm recovery and has repaired 220 miles of levees and floodwalls.

Still, only two-thirds of the pre-Katrina population of New Orleans has returned to the city, where storm damage remains visible. Only 40 percent of the city’s public school students have returned to the city, although sales tax receipts have climbed to 84 percent of pre-storm levels, according to a new Brookings Institution report.

The Louisiana-run Road Home program, which provides rebuilding grants to homeowners who had inadequate storm insurance, has sent checks to 44,000 hurricane victims, despite having received more than 184,000 applications and having billions of dollars in the bank.

While his reception among city leaders here was certainly polite (he dined Tuesday with Democratic Mayor C. Ray Nagin, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and other notables), there was also an unmistakable frustration about federal red tape, inadequate funding and a sense of having been forgotten by the administration. Even in the handpicked audience for Wednesday’s school appearance, some voiced skepticism mixed in with gratitude for Bush’s show of support.

“He has not done a good job. He has made promises – and he has not kept them” said Thelma Ruth, 72, a retired schoolteacher who was forced to move to Baton Rouge for eight months before moving back to a home in the Broadmoor neighborhood.

All told, more than 1,600 people died in the storm along the Gulf Coast, and 1.5 million people were scattered.