SAN ANTONIO — Relieved and upbeat, President Bush declared Monday that the government had responded “a lot better” to Hurricane Gustav than it did to Hurricane Katrina.
Eager to show that officials had learned the tragic lessons of Katrina, Bush scrapped an opening-night speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., and flew instead to emergency command centers in Texas. He landed shortly after a weakened Gustav made landfall in Cocodrie, La.
“The coordination on this storm is a lot better than on — than during Katrina,” said Bush, who left a hurricane briefing in Austin smiling and shaking hands with emergency workers.
At each briefing, Bush struck a cheerful tone, saying residents were successfully evacuated, rescue supplies were in place and abundant, and that blame was not.
“There was clearly a spirit of sharing assets, of listening to somebody’s problems and saying, ‘How can we best address them?’ ” he said.
The image of Bush was that of a hands-on president in charge. Three years ago, Bush seemed out of touch and distant from the suffering.
His trip Monday served to replace the images of Louisiana residents stranded on rooftops of homes flooded by Katrina — a storm that killed nearly 1,600 people, wiped out 90,000 square miles of property and wreaked billions of dollars in damage.
FEMA Director David Paulison told reporters on Air Force One traveling to Texas that unlike during Katrina, help was deployed ahead of the storm, significantly easing evacuations.
The president also made a plea for Americans to help support recovery efforts by donating to relief agencies.
“Nobody’s happy about these storms,” he said.
“Everybody’s praying for everybody’s safety, but I’m confident that after the storm passes and there’s a human need, it will be met because of the generosity of the American people.”
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told The Associated Press that he couldn’t remember a time when FEMA was juggling so many major disasters at once. Besides Gustav, FEMA is dealing with Hurricane Hanna, more than a dozen major uncontrolled fires across the country, flooding in eastern and northern Florida and heavy rains predicted later this week in Alaska.
