Washington – President Bush said today that his administration was moving quickly to save lives and provide sustenance to uncounted victims of Hurricane Katrina but that recovery “will take years” from the storm that laid waste to the Gulf Coast.
“We’re dealing with one of the worst national disasters in our nation’s history,” he said at the news conference hours after an aerial tour of the area.
“This is going to be a difficult road,” he added, and made it clear the impact could broaden well past the four states along the battered coast.
“Our citizens must understand this storm has disrupted the capacity to make gasoline and to distribute gasoline,” the president said.
Flanked by senior members of his administration, Bush ran down a list of actions already taken to help victims of the storm.
He said, for example, buses were on the way to help take thousands of storm survivors from the overwhelmed Superdome in New Orleans to the Astrodome in Houston.
Medical teams have been deployed, as have urban search and rescue teams, the president said.
The Coast Guard has rescued nearly 2,000 people, he added.
Bush said the Pentagon, as well, was contributing to the rescue and relief operations, and said he had instructed Energy Secretary Sam Bodman to work with refineries to “alleviate any shortage through loans.” In addition to the government’s efforts, Bush encouraged private cash donations to recovery efforts.
While Bush did not minimize the destruction left by the storm, he expressed optimism in words directed at the victims of the storm who have lost their homes, possessions and employment.
“I’m confident that with time you’ll get your life back in order, new communities will flourish, the great city of New Orleans will get back on its feet and America will be a stronger place for it,” he said.
Bush stepped to the microphones to put a personal imprint on efforts his administration is making to cope with the disaster in the Gulf Coast.
“Truckloads of water, ice, meals, medical supplies, generators, tents and tarpaulins” are loaded aboard 1,700 trailer trucks in an initial emergency response, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said at a news conference.
He pledged a “full range of federal resources” – a list that ran from bridge inspection and repair to restoration of communications networks to mosquito abatement in a region with vast stretches underwater.
At the same time, officials warned of continuing hardships across an area laid waste by the powerful storm.
Michael Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services, announced that he had declared a public health emergency in the area stretching from Louisiana to Florida. “We are gravely concerned about the potential for cholera, typhoid and dehydrating diseases that could come as a result of the stagnant water and the conditions,” he said.
Chertoff and Leavitt spoke at a news conference attended by an unusual array of department and agency heads, each of whom came equipped with a list of actions already taken by the administration.
