New Orleans – Former President Bush Returns To New Orleans For 10th Anniversary Of Katrina

    4

    Former U.S. President George W. Bush talks with Ashantae Martin (L) and Ronjae Pleasant at  Warren Easton Charter High School one day before the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana August 28, 2015. At right is former first lady Laura Bush. REUTERS/Jonathan BachmanNew Orleans – Former President George W. Bush returned Friday to New Orleans — the scene of one of his presidency’s lowest points — to tout the region’s recovery from the nation’s costliest natural disaster on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    He is visiting Warren Easton Charter High School, the same school he visited on the first anniversary of the catastrophic storm. He is accompanied by his wife, Laura, whose library foundation helped rebuild what is the oldest public school in New Orleans.

    The two met with students at the school’s gymnasium, where he was also greeted by New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco, who was in office during Katrina. His wife, Laura, wore a purple dress in honor of the school’s colors.

    The school’s success is one of the president’s brighter moments in what was an extremely trying time for the Bush administration. Bush was vilified for his government’s lackluster response.

    A series of faux pas — from flying over flooded New Orleans first on Air Force One to his “Heckuva job, Brownie” quip in support of then-director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown— marred his personal record.

    Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University and author of “The Great Deluge,” a detailed account of the first days after Katrina, said the catastrophic hurricane became a “confluence of blunders” from which Bush would not recover. His approval ratings fell following the storm and did not recover, he said. “That’s when I think his presidency started on a downward trend.”

    In New Orleans, Bush and his team was pilloried by Louisianans and became the source of deep resentment and mockery — displayed in effigy at Carnival displays for years after Katrina.

    At Warren Easton, at least, Bush could point to a success story.

    “We have fond memories of his last visit,” said Arthur Hardy, a celebrity in New Orleans for his expertise in all things Mardi Gras and Carnival, the city’s signature festivity. Hardy graduated from the high school in 1965.

    He said Bush helped the school come back and reopen after Katrina.

    After New Orleans, the Bush family will visit Gulfport, Mississippi, to attend an event with state officials, including Gov. Phil Bryant and former Gov. Haley Barbour. Barbour was governor when Katrina hit and served as a staunch Bush ally.

    The event in Mississippi will serve to thank first responders who helped after the hurricane.

    The Gulf Coast and New Orleans are places Bush is deeply tied to — both as an eastern Texan familiar with the Gulf and as the president.

    The bulk of the rebuilding fell to the Bush administration, which oversaw more than $140 billion in spending on the disaster, his office said.

    Bush largely took a hands-off approach and frequently said rebuilding was best left to locals. He’s made frequent trips to the region since Katrina, his office said. Much of the rebuilding — now viewed as a success story — was overseen by Bush appointees.

    In 2006, when he came to deliver his anniversary remarks, Bush picked Warren Easton as an example of the city’s comeback spirit.

    The school — badly flooded and facing closure — fought to stay open as a new charter school and was in the process of reopening when Bush came. When Warren Easton reopened in 2006, nearly every student who attended was considered homeless because they lived in trailers sent to hurricane victims by the Federal Emergency Management Agency or slept on couches, school officials said.

    Back then, Bush talked about the need for school reforms. His speech was a nod to the city’s efforts to expand charter schools to break up what was widely seen as a failing neighborhood school model. The old public school system was riddled with broken buildings, failing grades and pervasive corruption.

    Since Katrina, New Orleans has become a living experiment for a city-wide charter system, with many schools reporting greater diversity and steady academic gains.


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group


    4 Comments
    Most Voted
    Newest Oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    Tzi_Bar_David
    Tzi_Bar_David
    8 years ago

    I have been to N.O. and asked the locals about the flooding…none of them blamed the Federal government; rather they blamed the corrupt local officials who pocketed the billions of dollars in funding that the Feds had been giving to N.O. over the years for levee maintenance and upkeep.

    8 years ago

    I’ve never been able to understand why it took so long for George W. Bush to authorize the deployment of helicopters from the U.S. Coast Guard, to rescue American citizens, from the roofs of their flooded neighborhoods, in New Orleans. When the great tsunami struck Indonesia, less than a year earlier, Bush immediately dispatched aircraft carriers with helicopters to that area, to rescue stranded civilians. Yet, in his own country, he wasn’t so quick to help people. He even initially turned down offers from other countries (including Eretz Yisrael), when they offered assistance. He finally relented, when he saw that help was needed. I will never forget the stupid remark he made to his head of FEMA (“Brownie, you’re doing a great job”). If the Katrina lack of response scenario had occurred before the 2004 election, Bush would never have been reelected!

    PaulinSaudi
    PaulinSaudi
    8 years ago

    Everyone involved from the Federal to the State to the City government messed this up. It is remarkable how much better Mississippi recovered compared to Louisiana.