Bush visits hurricane-hit Gulf Coast

President George Bush travelled to a still-ravaged Gulf Coast after three months away, promising a post-hurricane building boom and encouraging other Americans to visit.

Mr Bush’s visit to New Orleans and Mississippi was part of a series of events to showcase his priorities leading up to the State of the Union address. He said he was committed to rebuilding communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

“People in far away places like Washington DC still hear you and care about you,” Mr Bush told survivors gathered at St Stanislaus College, just a couple of blocks from where Katrina blew ashore.

The president’s route to the college took him down a coastal road past thousands of snapped trees and debris. There were almost no intact structures - in most cases only concrete foundations were left – and little evidence of rebuilding.

“There’s no homes to repair,” Mr Bush said. “It’s just been flattened. That’s what the people of America have got to understand.”

Unlike in New Orleans, where most of the population has not returned, the road was lined with dozens of onlookers. Many held signs pleading for help and pledging their determination to rebuild their communities.

Mr Bush recalled his vow from New Orleans’ Jackson Square to return the region to its former glory.

“I said we’re not just going to cope, we’re going to overcome,” he said. “I meant what I said.”

Earlier on a brief stop in New Orleans, Bush said the improvement since his last visit in mid-October is dramatic.

“It may be hard for you to see, but from when I first came here to today, New Orleans is reminding me of the city I used to come to visit,” he said.

“It’s a heck of a place to bring your family. It’s a great place to find some of the greatest food in the world and some wonderful fun.

“And for folks around the country who are looking for a great place to have a convention, or a great place to visit, I’d suggest coming here to the great New Orleans,” said Mr Bush, seated before a colourful mural depicting jazz musicians, a river boat, masked Mardi Gras revellers and crawfish.

The president spoke to reporters before meeting privately with small business owners and local government officials in the New Orleans visitors bureau, located in the Lower Garden District neighbourhood that was not flooded. The area suffered little impact from the storm, and his motorcade passed stately homes with very little damage.

Bush praised the city’s success in bringing much of its infrastructure back - if not most of its citizens and businesses. He ignored a question about what he thought of the city’s rebuilding plan, unveiled yesterday to residents angry about a suggested four-month moratorium on new building permits in heavily flooded areas.

Many New Orleans neighbourhoods are still abandoned wastelands, with uninhabitable homes, no working street lights and pavements piled with mouldy rubbish. Barely a quarter of the 400,000 people who fled have come back, demographers estimate.

Dozens of protesters, most teen girls, donned life jackets, goggles and inner tubes today to symbolise their flooded homes and protest about New Orleans’ lack of defence against future storms.

Chanting cheerleader-style slogans, the girls, ages 13 to 18, pumped fists in the air and held up signs warning that if levees are not fixed and the Gulf Coast’s wetlands not restored, the city could flood again as it did after Hurricane Katrina.

The event, which drew a total of about 300 protesters and spectators, coincided with Mr Bush’s ninth visit to the city since the storm.

Bush said the federal government has made £48.3 billion available so far to hurricane recovery, €20.8bn of which has been spent. He said that was “good help so far”, and much of the work would have to be driven by the private sector.