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Bush pleads guilty for Katrina mistakes

* Unveils ambitious reconstruction plan

NEW ORLEANS: President George W Bush accepted blame for the US government’s flawed response to Hurricane Katrina in a nationally televised speech here, and promised one of the biggest rebuilding efforts the world has ever seen in the disaster zone.

In his late Thursday speech Bush promised a drastic safety review for every US city, on a day the death toll for the destructive August 29 storm reached 792.

“The system, at every level of government, was not well coordinated, and was overwhelmed in the first few days,” Bush said in a live speech from Jackson Square in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter. “Four years after the frightening experience of September 11, Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency. “When the federal government fails to meet such an obligation, I as president am responsible for the problem, and for the solution.”

Bush ordered a sweeping review of disaster-response plans in every major US city. “I consider detailed emergency planning to be a national security priority,” Bush said. The president gave no detail how much on top of the 62 billion dollars allotted by Congress, but vowed: “The work that has begun in the Gulf Coast region will be one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen.”

Bush was back in the region for the fourth time since Katrina struck to make his ambitious proposal to rebuild the disaster zone across Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Amid criticism of the treatment of New Orleans’ poor blacks who made up the majority of the tens of thousands stranded in the city, Bush emphasized that special help had to be given to African-Americans in the rebuilding.

Democratic Senator John Kerry was unimpressed by Bush’s speech, during which the president gave out telephone numbers and Internet websites of places to give and receive help. “Leadership isn’t a speech or a toll-free number. Leadership is getting the job done,” said Kerry in a statement.

“No American doubts that New Orleans will rise again, they doubt the competence and commitment of this administration.”

Americans “want to know that their government will be there when it counts with leadership that keeps them safe, not speeches in the aftermath to explain away the inexcusable.” And the leaders of the minority Democratic Party opposition in Congress, Representative Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid, issued a joint statement saying that Americans “need answers from independent experts” to learn what went wrong with the Katrina response and how to better prepare for a disaster.

With the cleanup gathering pace - though not all bodies found - New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said business owners could start to return to the city from Saturday. “The city of New Orleans, starting this weekend, will start to breathe again,” Nagin told a press conference. “We will have life. We will have commerce. We will have people getting back into their normal modes of operation.” He added that about 180,000 residents would start returning in a phased operation from Monday. afp

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